Table 1.

Overall patient and semen characteristics and microbiological results

	Total (n = 1300)	Culture negative (n = 35)	Culture positive (n = 42)	p value
Age [mean ± SD]	36.7 ± 8.2	37.0 ± 7.5	39.9 ± 10.4	0.004
Spermiogram
Volume [mean ± SD]	3.3 ± 2.6	3.5 ± 1.9	2.9 ± 1.9	0.114
WHO path. [n (%)]
Sperm/mL [mean ± SD]	52.1 ± 73.3	47.6 ± 49.1	41.5 ± 54.5	0.825
WHO path. [n (%)]
Overall concentration (in mio.) [mean ± SD]	165.2 ± 273.7	140.8 ± 182.1	113.7 ± 153.3	0.925re
WHO path. [n (%)]
Motility A % [mean ± SD]	9.6 ± 9.8	12.1 ± 9.6	10.0 ± 9.8	0.922
WHO path. [n (%)]
Motility B % [mean ± SD]	24.4 ± 31.0	29.7 ± 11.0	27.7 ± 9.6	0.943
WHO path. [n (%)]
Motility C % [mean ± SD]	14.8 ± 11.1	18.0 ± 6.1	17.6 ± 5.1	0.162
WHO path. [n (%)]
Motility D % [mean ± SD]	30.3 ± 23.4	40.3 ± 21.1	44.7 ± 20.6	0.001
WHO path. [n (%)]
Leucocytes (mio./mL)	0.1 ± 0.2	0.1 ± 0.2	0.3 ± 0.5	< 0.001
WHO path. [n (%)]
Normal shape in % [mean ± SD]	5.7 ± 4.8	5.4 ± 2.5	4.5 ± 2.2	0.018
WHO path. [n (%)]
Vitality in % [mean ± SD]	55.4 ± 14.0	53.9 ± 13.4	52.2 ± 14.4	0.053
WHO path. [n (%)]
pH [mean ± SD]	8.1 ± 0.3	8.1 ± 0.3	8.2 ± 0.3	0.019
WHO path. [n (%)]
Positive urine culture		0 (0)	0 (0)
Sperm culture
Poly-microbial [n (%)]		24 (60.0)
Mono-microbial [n (%)]		16 (40.0)
Microbial spectrum [n (%)]
Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus spp.		30 (71.4)
Streptococcus viridans		21 (50.0)
Enterococcus faecalis		11 (26.2)
Hemophilus parainfluenzae		6 (14.3)
Neisseria spp.		5 (11.9)
Ureaplasma urealyticum		4 (9.5)
Corynebacterium spp.		3 (7.1)
Streptococcus agalactiae		3 (7.1)
Chlamydia trachomatis		1 (2.4)
Escherichia coli		1 (2.4)
Non-hemolytic Streptococci		1 (2.4)
Streptococcus anginosus		1 (2.4)
Klebsiella pneumoniae		1 (2.4)

p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant (in bold)