THE VARIABILITY OF MEASURING SPERM CONCENTRATION AND MOTILITY AS DETERMINED BY COMPUTER-ASSISTED IMAGE-ANALYSIS AND VISUAL ESTIMATION

Systems of computer-assisted image processing (CAIP) offer good reprod ucibility and low intra-assay variability between replicate analyses o f the same sample. The correlation between these values and those obta ined by directly microscopic observation can be well demonstrated. The comparability between systems of different manufacturers is sufficien t and satisfactory. Thus, they are well-suited for the routine work in the andrologic laboratory. Since sperm parameters are used for the pr ediction of male fertility, it is important to know whether computer-a ssisted analysis improves the predictive power as compared to visual e stimation. In our study we compared the variation of semen parameters between two semen samples of the same individual taken in an interval of at least 3 months, by using the CAIP and visual methods. Significan tly close correlations between the two values were obtained by both me thods. Values of cell concentration showed the highest correlation in both methods (r=0.75). The lowest correlation, but also statistically significant, was observed in the values of locally motile cells (r=0.5 4 for CAIP and r=0.30 for visual determination). Although apparantly h igher in CAIP within method correlation coefficients did not show stat istically meaningful differences between both methods. We conclude fro m our study that if values of sperm concentration and motility as meas ured by CAIP are compared to those obtained by visual measurement, the first method is not superior to the latter in terms of retest reliabi lity.