Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
CReATe Fertility Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Andrology. 2021 Jul;9(4):1205-1213. doi: 10.1111/andr.13002. Epub 2021 Apr 2.
Automated sperm analysis has wide applications in infertility diagnosis. Existing systems are not able to measure sperm count and both motility and morphology of individual live spermatozoa. Morphology measurement requires invasive staining, making the spermatozoa after morphology measurement not applicable to infertility treatment.
To evaluate the reproducibility and reliability of automated measurement of individual live sperm's motility and morphology.
Fresh semen samples were obtained from twenty male partners attending for fertility investigations. The system firstly measured motility for all the spermatozoa within the field of view under a low magnification (20×), then a spermatozoa of interest is selected by the user and automatically relocated by the system after switching to a high magnification (100×) for morphology measurement. Reproducibility of sperm measurements was evaluated by intraclass correlation coefficients on consecutive measurement. Reliability of motility and morphology measurement was evaluated by tracking error rate and limits of agreement, respectively, with manual measurement as benchmark.
Measurement of all motility and morphology parameters had intraclass correlation coefficients higher than 0.94. Sperm motility measurement had a tracking error rate of 2.1%. Limit of agreement analysis indicated that automated measurement and manual measurement of sperm morphology were interchangeable. Automated measurement of all morphology parameters was not statistically different from manual measurement, as confirmed by the paired sample t test.
Automated motility and morphology measurement of single sperm revealed high reproducibility and reliability. The system also achieved a high efficiency for motility and morphology measurement. In addition to the intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) samples with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), the developed sperm measurement technique is also effective for analyzing semen and washed samples. The system provides a valuable tool for quantitative measurement and selection of single spermatozoa for ICSI. It can also be used for sperm motility and morphology analysis in andrology laboratories.
自动化精子分析在不孕症诊断中有广泛的应用。现有的系统无法测量精子数量，也无法测量单个活精子的活力和形态。形态测量需要进行有创染色，这使得经过形态测量后的精子不适用于不孕症治疗。
评估单个活精子活力和形态的自动测量的可重复性和可靠性。
从 20 名前来进行生育力调查的男性伴侣中获得新鲜精液样本。该系统首先在低倍镜（20×）下测量视野内所有精子的活力，然后用户选择感兴趣的精子，系统在切换到高倍镜（100×）进行形态测量后自动重新定位该精子。通过连续测量的组内相关系数评估精子测量的可重复性。通过跟踪误差率和一致性界限分别评估精子活力和形态测量的可靠性，以手动测量为基准。
所有精子活力和形态参数的测量均具有高于 0.94 的组内相关系数。精子活力测量的跟踪误差率为 2.1%。一致性界限分析表明，自动化测量和手动测量精子形态是可互换的。自动化测量所有形态参数与手动测量均无统计学差异，配对样本 t 检验证实了这一点。
单个精子的自动活力和形态测量显示出高可重复性和可靠性。该系统还实现了对活力和形态的高效测量。除了使用聚乙烯吡咯烷酮（PVP）的胞质内精子注射（ICSI）样本外，开发的精子测量技术也可有效分析精液和洗涤样本。该系统为 ICSI 中单个精子的定量测量和选择提供了有价值的工具。它还可用于男科实验室的精子活力和形态分析。
