Predictive value of sperm morphology and movement characteristics in the outcome of in vitro fertilization of human oocytes

Abstract

One hundred fourteen semen samples from Chinese males were analyzed for routine semen parameters including the semen volume, sperm count, percentage motility, and percentage normal morphology. Of these 114 samples, 54 also had movement characteristics of seminal and swim-up sperm evaluated by the computer image analyzer system (Cellsoft; Cryo Resources Co., New York). All semen samples were subjected to the swim-up procedure to harvest the motile sperm before inseminations of human oocytes. Fertilization was considered to have occurred when at least one oocyte was observed with two or more pronuclei. Semen samples were classified as infertile (0% fertilization rate; N = 32) or fertile (greater than 0% fertilization rate; N = 82) before statistical analyses. There was a significant difference (P less than 0.005) in percentage normal morphology of seminal sperm between the fertile (mean +/- SE; 67.3 +/- 1.2%) and the infertile (59.3 +/- 2.2%) samples. The percentage normal morphology of seminal sperm correlated (r = 0.3049; P less than 0.002) with the fertilization rate and this parameter was selected by the multivariate stepwise discriminant analysis as the discriminator capable of predicting the fertilization rate with 57.9% accuracy. Statistical analyses of samples where sperm movement was also evaluated demonstrated that there was significant differences (P less than 0.01) between the fertile (N = 38) and the infertile (N = 16) samples in percentage normal morphology of seminal sperm (67.8 +/- 1.8% vs 56.2 +/- 2.6%) and curvilinear velocity of swim-up sperm (89.2 +/- 3.5 vs 68.2 +/- 7.2 microns/sec).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Semen Analysis and Antisperm Antibody

“…Only the percentage of normal sperm morphology correlated with the fertilization rate in the studies of Liu et al [4], Chan et al [ 5 ] , and Enginsu et al [6]. The assessment of sperm morphology was superior to sperm density as a predictor for the fertilizing ability [3].…”

Spermatozoa Recovered by Ixaprep Gradient have Improved Longevity and Better Motion Characteristics than Those by Percoll Gradient

“…VCL, VSL and ALH were all documented to correlate with the fertilizing ability of spermatozoa [6] as well as reproductive outcomes [5,14,151. Chan et al [5] reported that in women undergoing in vitro fertilization, VCL was much higher for fertile couples when compared with fertile couples. Hinting et al [14] demonstrated that a cut-off value of VSL 2 22 pmis could discriminate the semen of fertile men from that of subfertile subjects.…”

Sperm morphology assessment: diagnostic potential and comparitive analysis of strict or WHO criteria in a fertile and a subfertile population

“…Despite these methodological pitfalls, sperm morphology seems to be an excellent predictive parameter in in vitro fertilization programmes and the studies supporting this statement are numerous (Kruger et al, 1986Liu & Baker, 1988;Oehninger et al, 1988;Chan et al, 1989;Hinting et al, 1990;Enginsu et al, 1991;Kobayashi et al, 1991;Grow et al, 1994;Ombelet et al, 1994). On the other hand, studies concerning the clinical relevance and predictive value of sperm morphology in vivo are rather scarce.…”