Study of the accuracy of physical and biochemical markers in semen to detect infectious dysfunction of the accessory sex glands.

Infection of the male accessory sex glands may result in impaired secretory function and alteration of the composition of seminal plasma. Using receiver operating characteristic curves and accuracy tests, the power of several biochemical and physical markers was evaluated for their ability to discriminate between semen of infected and noninfected infertile men. The total output of citric acid had the strongest discriminating power, followed by acid phosphatase and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase. Measurement of the concentration of fructose was found to be nondiscriminatory.