Soffer Y, Golan A, Herman A, Pansky M, Caspi E, Ron-El R
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tel Aviv University, Sackler School of Medicine, Assaf Harofe Medical Center, Zerifin, Israel.
Fertil Steril. 1992 Sep;58(3):556-62. doi: 10.1016/s0015-0282(16)55263-7.
To evaluate sperm penetration assay (SPA) value as a screening tool before in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Follow-up study comparing sperm variables and IVF outcome.
Infertile couples in an academic research environment.
PATIENTS, PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred forty-one infertile couples scheduled for IVF.
Sperm penetrating assay with cold Tes-TRIS (TEST) Yolk buffer semen preincubation and IVF.
Percent of egg penetration recoded into poor and good category (0% to 20%, 21% to 100%) and compared with fertilization, embryo transfer, and pregnancy rate (PR) in IVF, as well as sperm count motility and morphology.
Sperm penetrating assay predicted fertilization with a high negative (74%) and positive (82%) predictive rate and good specificity value (0.96). One of 31 patients in the poor SPA category (3%) fertilized less than 50% of eggs; no pregnancy occurred. In the good SPA category, 87 of 210 patients (41%) fertilized greater than or equal to 50% of eggs with 34.3% PR. Sperm penetrating assay correlated better with fertilization rate than did sperm count and motility but not morphology.
Sperm penetrating assay is a useful screening assay before IVF together with sperm morphology.
