Measurement of spermatozoal motility over prolonged periods of time using image analysis

The variability of measuring sperm concentration and motility as determined by computer assisted image analysis and visual estimation

Systems of computer-assisted image processing (CAIP) offer good reproducibility and low intra-assay variability between replicate analyses of the same sample. The correlation between these values and those obtained by directly microscopic observation can be well demonstrated. The comparability between systems of different manufacturers is sufficient and satisfactory. Thus, they are well-suited for the routine work in the andrologic laboratory. Since sperm parameters are used for the prediction of male fertility, it is important to know whether computer-assisted analysis improves the predictive power as compared to visual estimation. In our study we compared the variation of semen parameters between two semen samples of the same individual taken in an interval of at least 3 months, by using the CAIP and visual methods. Significantly close correlations between the two values were obtained by both methods. Values of cell concentration showed the highest correlation in both methods (r = 0.75). The lowest correlation, but also statistically significant, was observed in the values of locally motile cells (r = 0.54 for CAIP and r = 0.30 for visual determination). Although apparently higher in CAIP within method correlation coefficients did not show statistically meaningful differences between both methods. We conclude from our study that if values of sperm concentration and motility as measured by CAIP are compared to those obtained by visual measurement, the first method is not superior to the latter in terms of retest reliability.

Motion of individual human spermatozoa, both normal and lacking the outer dynein arms, during a continuous temperature rise

The effect of increasing temperature from 22-25 degrees C to 37 degrees C on various motion characteristics of individual normal human spermatozoa and spermatozoa lacking the outer dynein arms (LODA) was studied by using a new automatic microscopic tracking method. It was found that: 1) The curvilinear velocity (Vc, measured between 1-3 sec) of both normal and LODA spermatozoa, fluctuated more or less intensely between spermatozoa; this fluctuation was not thermodependent. 2) The average Vc in the two groups of spermatozoa increased with the rise in temperature at a similar rate (1 micron/sec/degrees C), but LODA spermatozoa had an initial Vc lower than that of normal spermatozoa (12.5 +/- 5.3 microns/sec and 34.2 +/- 8.2 microns/sec, respectively). 3) The profile of the Vc increase associated with the temperature rise was different for the two groups of spermatozoa: for LODA spermatozoa it was linear between 25-37 degrees C, whereas for normal spermatozoa a plateau was reached at about 31 degrees C. 4) Various patterns of trajectory were found for both normal and LODA spermatozoa; these patterns were unrelated to temperature. However, LODA spermatozoa had more linear trajectories than normal spermatozoa. 5) Plots derived from reaction rate theory showed that the activation enthalpy, delta H was a function of the increase of Vc for both normal and LODA spermatozoa, but that delta H was higher for LODA spermatozoa.