COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT METHODS FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF ANTISPERM ANTIBODIES ON SPERMATOZOA, IN SEMINAL PLASMA AND IN SERUM

Since there is no gold standard for the diagnosis of immunological inf ertility, comparison between different methods and of their results wi th biological tests for the detection of antisperm antibodies must be used in defining the most reliable and clinically relevant method. We have evaluated the results of direct (n = 100) and indirect tests in s erum (n = 140) and seminal plasma (n = 100) using the SpermMAR and Imm unobead (IB) techniques for the detection of sperm antibodies of the i mmunoglobulin (Tg) classes G, A and M, and we have compared the result s with those of the tray agglutination test and the adenosine triphosp hate release cytotoxicity test, Results indicate the higher specificit y and sensitivity of the SpermMAR results for IgG and IgA, as compared to the outcome of the IB test. It appears that the LB test for IgA ma y detect non-specific antibodies in serum. Little information is obtai ned from the tray agglutination test in seminal plasma, and the indire ct SpermMAR test for IgG in seminal plasma was the only independent va riable associated with the outcome of the former test, Since the Sperm MAR tests for IgG and IgA are more accurate and biologically relevant, as well as easier to perform than the respective IB tests, the former must be considered the method of first choice.