['To determine the frequencies and the characteristics of Y chromosome microdeletions (pl) in infertile men from central China to perform appropriate therapeutic choices by updated multiplex-PCR.', 'In this study, we established a novel universal primer-multiplex-PCR (U-M-PCR) method to overcome the disadvantages of traditional multiplex PCR (M-PCR). We chose 15 sequence-tagged sites (STS) for detection of Y chromosome microdeletions. 540 infertile male patients and 100 healthy male controls were selected in the study.', 'Of the 540 male infertility patients, 48 Y-chromosome microdeletions were detected, with a total deletion rate of 8.9\xa0%. Of these deletions, the rate of AZFa deletions (sY84) was 0.5\xa0% (3/540), the rate of AZFb deletions (sY143) was 0.7\xa0% (4/540) and the rate of AZFc deletions (sY242, sY254 and sY255) was 7.6\xa0% (41/540). Compared with AZF deletion rates by M-PCR, we found U-M-PCR could detect AZFc deletion more specifically (1.0\xa0% & 7.6\xa0%). No Y-chromosome microdeletions were detected in the 100 males with normal semen (the control group).'] Does a novel universal multiplex PCR improve detection of AZFc Y-chromosome microdeletions?