Evaluation of Hamilton-Thorn Automated Semen Analysis System

Abstract

Sperm concentration and percentage motility values generated by the HT M-2030 system (CASA) were compared with those obtained by subjective semen analysis (SSA). Three calibrations arbitrarily designated as A, M, and D for gates and discriminators and three calibrations arbitrarily designated LI, MI, and HI for default pixel count (DPC) and default intensity (DI) were evaluated. The best correlation between CASA and SSA was observed utilizing M calibration (n - 114) with which sperm concentration was +0.3 × 10⁶/mL (r -. 96) and motility was -6.3% (r =. 89) compared to the values obtained by SSA. It was found that 35.9% of sperm concentration values and 34.2% of sperm motility values were within 10% of the values obtained by SSA. When sperm concentration was between 50 and 100 × 10⁶/mL the difference in motility was reduced (-3.2%) while the difference in sperm concentration was reversed (-2.6 × 10⁶/mL). LI calibration (DPC - 4, DI - 86) gave acceptable results with M calibration for sperm concentration (+ 2.1 × 10⁶/mL) and motility (-6.9%) compared to the values obtained by SSA. In the presence of sperm clumping, the difference between CASA and SSA was reversed for sperm concentration (+ 0.56 × 10⁶/mL for normal samples vs. -2.2 × 10⁶/mL for samples with clumping) and was reduced for sperm motility (-7.14% vs. -4.55%, respectively). HT M-2030 under proper calibration can be used as a rapid, objective, and reliable alternative to conventional semen analysis in routine and for research purposes.

Key Words:

• Computer-assisted semen analysis
• Spermatozoa
• Semen