Adult urologyInheritance of varicoceles
Section snippets
Patient selection
We retrospectively reviewed the charts of men presenting to a tertiary care university center between October 1997 and November 2003 and identified those patients diagnosed with a palpable varicocele during an evaluation of subfertility. Of the these men, 44 agreed to have their available first-degree relatives contacted for screening of varicoceles. Of the 106 first-degree relatives contacted, 62 (58.5%) elected to participate in this study. All first-degree relatives included in this study
Results
The characteristics of the study participants are presented in Table I.
Comment
Varicoceles have been described in the medical literature since the first century. Most of the studies of varicoceles have focused on its pathophysiology, as well as on the methods and results of repair.11, 12, 13, 14, 15 The heredity of varicoceles and the potential transmission to first-degree relatives has rarely been addressed.
To our knowledge, this study is the largest to date to evaluate the inheritance of varicoceles. We found that more than 50% of first-degree relatives of patients with
Conclusions
On the basis of the known estimates of the incidence of varicoceles in the general population, as well as the comparison with our control group, a significant increase in varicocele prevalence is present in the first-degree relatives (particularly brothers) of men with known varicoceles. Neither varicocele size nor bilaterality appeared to increase the risk of inheritance. Given the detrimental effect of varicoceles on spermatogenesis and steroidogenesis, patients should be counseled about this
Acknowledgment
To Paul Christos, M.S., M.P.H., Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Weill-Cornell University Medical Center, who provided assistance with the statistical analysis for this manuscript.
References (16)
- et al.
Loss of fertility in men with a varicocele
Fertil Steril
(1993) - et al.
Varicocelea progressive or static lesion?
Urology
(1993) Detailed anatomy of the internal spermatic vein and the ovarian veinhuman cadaver study and operative spermatic venography—clinical aspects
J Urol
(1991)- et al.
Left renal vein to inferior vena cava pressure relationships in humans
J Urol
(1982) - et al.
Pathophysiology of varicocele in nonhuman primateslong-term seminal and testicular changes
Fertil Steril
(1986) - et al.
Studies in temperature, human semen quality, and varicocele
Fertil Steril
(1973) - et al.
Elevation of intratesticular and scrotal skin surface temperature in men with a varicocele
J Urol
(1989) Seminal cytology in the presence of varicocele
Fertil Steril
(1965)
Cited by (49)
Exosomes as Potential Biomarkers for Erectile Dysfunction, Varicocele, and Testicular Injury
2022, Sexual Medicine ReviewsCharacterization of varicocele-induced animal models: Potential role of inflammasome complex in the varicocele pathophysiology
2022, Journal of Reproductive ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :Despite, a study that evaluated first-degree relatives of men with varicocele, found that around 34 % had palpable varicocele, which was approximately 3-fold greater than the control population (Gökçe et al., 2010). As previously reviewed (Alsaikhan et al., 2016), heredity for varicocele has already shown a prevalence of 45 and 56 % (Mokhtari et al., 2008; Raman et al., 2005). Although the study of Gökçe et al. (2010) evaluated a small cohort (100 men with varicocele), multicenter studies with larger cohorts could help to strengthen this finding (Gökçe et al., 2010).
Effect of varicoceles on spermatogenesis
2022, Seminars in Cell and Developmental BiologyCitation Excerpt :There also exists a genetic component to varicocele pathology. It has been reported that those with first-degree relatives have higher rates of varicocele, with one study reporting rates in brothers of men with varicocele at greater than 50% [15,16]. However, no genetic factors have been identified that explain the inheritance of varicocele occurrence or grade [16].
Molecular characteristics of varicocele: integration of whole-exome and transcriptome sequencing
2021, Fertility and SterilityVaricocele management for infertility and pain: A systematic review
2018, Arab Journal of UrologyCitation Excerpt :These anatomical findings may also correlate to a genetic component. A genetic study in 2005 examined first-degree relatives of men with a varicocele and found that 57% also had a clinically palpable varicocele, as compared to 7% in the control group [18]. Taken together, these data suggest a genetic and/or anatomical link underlying at least some of the biological consequences of having a varicocele.