The study regarding the AI tool was published in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics last week.
In nearly 50% of couples experiencing infertility, the problem lies with the male partner, said Dr Deepak Modi, senior researcher at ICMR’s National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health (NIRRCH) and lead author of the study.
“In them, there may be problems with sperm production. One of the main causes, Y chromosome microdeletion (YCMD) is observed in one in 10 men with infertility. Due to this genetic defect, the testicles cannot make enough sperm, leading to infertility,” Dr. Modi said.
Men with YCMD may not benefit from medical treatment to improve sperm count.
To become fathers, such men require assisted reproductive techniques like in vitro fertilization (IVF) for parenthood, he said.
The AI-based tool – “Fertility Predictor” – developed by ICMR-NIRRCH in collaboration with Amity University, Noida can predict sperm retrieval and success rate of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in men who have this genetic problem.
It also predicts the rate of conception, clinical pregnancy and live birth based on the type of Y chromosome microdeletion, Dr Modi said. This helps couples make informed decisions, he said.
However, Dr Modi warned that the male children born through IVF from men with YCMD will inherit the same defect and will be infertile as it is 100 per cent passed from fathers to their sons.
Developing this tool took about two years by compiling data from more than 500 men who have YCMD and are undergoing ART.
After applying an artificial intelligence algorithm based on machine learning to this data, the tool can predict the results. This was then validated on another subset and it was found to have an accuracy of about 80 percent, said Dr. Stacy Colaco, a researcher at NIRRCH and the first author of the study.
“Fertility predictor also provides a numerical output for the risk of clinical pregnancy and live birth in men with YCMD. The validation studies indicated its robustness and high accuracy in predicting both these parameters based solely on the type of YCMD,” said Dr Abhishek Sengupta of Amity University, Noida .
