Evaluation of patient compliance with the use of scrotal cooling devices
Bibliographic record
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the compliance of infertile men with the use of scrotal cooling devices. As a secondary objective, sperm parameters, deoxyribonucleic acid fragmentation, and hormone profiles were examined. DESIGN: This exploratory study on scrotal cooling provided scrotal cooling devices to men with primary infertility and abnormal semen parameters. Feedback on the devices after their use was gathered in the form of a questionnaire, and semen parameters were examined after device use. SETTING: Single center infertility clinic in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. PATIENTS: Patients with primary infertility and abnormal semen parameters were prospectively evaluated before and after scrotal cooling. INTERVENTIONS: One of two scrotal cooling devices (Underdog or Snowballs) was used, on the basis of patient preference. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Questionnaires were completed by patients on compliance with device use and concerns about and recommendations for improving the cooling devices. Baseline deoxyribonucleic acid fragmentation index, sperm parameters, and hormones were measured at the initial visit (t = 0) and at subsequent visits (t = 4-12 weeks). Statistical comparison of values before and after scrotal cooling was performed. RESULTS: Forty patients were enrolled in the study, and the questionnaire was completed by 65.0% (n = 26). Most respondents (76.9%) used scrotal cooling less than the recommended duration. Respondents believed that the devices were uncomfortable (31.5%), impeded work (21.0%), and lost cooling rapidly (14.3%). Significant increases in sperm motility and vitality (from 25.4 % to 29.0% and from 64.8% to 71.7%, respectively) were demonstrated after scrotal cooling. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients were not compliant with the recommended use of the scrotal cooling devices because of issues of comfort, convenience, and concealability. Further work on improving scrotal cooling devices is necessary to enhance their potential as a therapeutic tool for men with abnormal sperm parameters and infertility.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.005 | 0.015 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".