EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT STAINING AND WASHING PROCEDURES ON THE RESULTS OF HUMAN SPERM MORPHOLOGY EVALUATION BY MANUAL AND COMPUTERIZED METHODS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of different s taining and washing procedures on the results of human sperm morpholog y evaluation by manual and computerised methods. Furthermore, it was i ntended to find the staining and washing combination which would provi de optimal readability for computer-assisted sperm morphology evaluati ons. In phase one, four staining methods were evaluated for smears pre pared from the resulting samples following a two times washing procedu re. In phase two 20 Semen samples were used to compare the Diff-Quik a nd Papanicolaou staining methods, following one and two washes. All ma nual readings, of Papanicolaou and Diff-Quik stained smears, were comp arable with each other, with means between 7.3% and 7.9% normal sperma tozoa. All the manual readings were also comparable to the computer re adings of the Diff-Quik slides following one and two washes with means of 9.0% and 5.9%, respectively. However, due to the higher computer r eadings found for the Papanicolaou stained smears, with means of 13.9% and 13.5% following one and two washes, respectively, a statistically significantly difference between overall computer and manual readings was found (Wilks' Lamda, P = 0.0002). Taking all data into considerat ion, it could be concluded that the one wash Diff-Quik stained smears was the optimal preparation method for computerised sperm morphology e valuation, comparing favourably with manual evaluations.