FISH on sperm: spot-counting to stop counting? Not yet.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the reliability and applicability of the spot-counting system (Cytovision Spot AX workstation) which offers an alternative to the tedious manual analysis of sperm fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).

DESIGN

Manual and automatic analyses were performed and compared.

SETTING

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

PATIENT(S): Twenty-four men who asked for information on infertility showing different seminal parameters.

INTERVENTION(S): A semen sample for each patient was collected and prepared for FISH.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): A dual-color FISH using specific probes for chromosomes 13 and 21 and a triple-color FISH with centromeric probes for chromosomes 18, X, and Y were used (Vysis). Standard FISH analysis was carried out. Automatic analysis was subsequently performed using a Spot AX system.

RESULT(S): Overall, we performed 120 comparisons. In 116 out of 120 (96.67%), the percentage of anomalies reported using manual counting fell within the incidence detected using the automatic system. In the remaining comparisons, statistical differences were detected (4 out of 120; 3.33%). Time consumed by the automatic analysis was always higher than the manual one, being influenced by the characteristics of the preparations.

CONCLUSION(S): The spot-counting system has potential, but before the service is ready to be offered, we still need to overcome some limitations associated with it.