Editorial

The Special Issue on Infertility in Archives of Medical Science is an attempt to include state of the art articles on contemporary topics in both male and female infertility in a series of nineteen articles. This issue is unique in that it is complete in itself and focuses on male infertility a much neglected area. It begins with chapter on various lifestyle factors and their impact on reproductive health but also includes chapters on some cutting edge topics in male and female reproductive pathology. The authors were carefully selected for their expertise from not only the United States but also from other parts of the world including Brazil, India, Spain and South Africa.
There is an authoritative article on intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and the role of L-carnitine in assisted reproduction and a chapter discussing the genetics of male infertility by Dr. Dada and her colleagues from India. Dr Gosalvez and his co-authors from Spain have written an article on sperm DNA integrity and male infertility while Dr du Plessis and colleagues discussed the role of insulin and leptin in male infertility. There is an interesting article by Mahfouz et al. on the role of PARP in male reproduction as well as the diagnostic and therapeutic applications of flow cytometry in male infertility. The section on male infertility ends with a chapter by Dr. Sabanegh on medical and surgical management of male infertility.
There are series of articles on female reproductive pathology. These include chapters by Dr Gupta and her team on new treatment modalities in endometriosis, ovarian reserve testing, adolescent PCO, ovulation induction in PCOS, antioxidants and female reproductive pathologies and an article by Dr du Plessis on fertility preserving surgeries in cancer.
We hope that the readers will find these articles informative, carefully documented and easy to read. We trust that it will stimulate the readers to investigate some of these areas in greater detail and, perhaps, will answer some of the unanswered problems in infertility.
I would like to extend my appreciation to all the authors as well as to my colleagues and associates in Cleveland Clinic for their valuable contribution. I sincerely hope that this special issue on infertility will stimulate new work and continuous dialogue between basic scientists, gynecologists, andrologists and embryologists.
I am grateful to Prof. Maciej Banach, Editor in Chief, for the opportunity to serve as a Guest Editor on the special issue of infertility. I am thankful to the editorial team of Archives of Medical Science for their continuous support in producing and publishing this important issue.


Ashok Agarwal, PhD, HCLD (ABB)
Director, Andrology Laboratory and Reproductive Tissue Bank
Director, Center for Reproductive Medicine
Professor, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute
Cleveland Clinic, A19.1
9500 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44195
Phone: (216) 444-9485
Fax: (216) 445-6049
E-mail: Agarwaa@ccf.org