Compa rative study of semen pa rameters between manual and sperm quality analyzer techniques among infertile patients in Kano, Nigeria

Abstract

Semen analysis is the primary step towards finding the influence of genital pathophysiology on the reproductive capacity of male, even then certain parameters might not be of any clinical significance. It is used to evaluate male fertility, comparing the results of semen analysis using manual method and automated sperm analyzer technique to have a better alternative to the traditional method. The study was a comparative study of 111 cases of semen analysis carried out at the Aminu Kano Teaching hospital Kano between the months of September to Number 2017. It was done by manual and automated method (using SQAII-P analyzer) according to WHO
guideline 2010. The finding in this study observed that sperm count, sperm morphology result of manual method are significantly associated with sperm count, sperm morphology result of SQA technique with p-value (P=0.00216 and 0.0040 respectively). Sperm progressive motility results of SQA and manual method are not significantly associated with each other. Automated method of semen analysis is a quicker method for the assessment of male infertility, even though automated sperm analyzer only provides percent normal morphology results without quantifying specific abnormalities and lack of analyzing sperm with very low count. As such it is limited when compared with manual methodology where morphological defects can be identified and quantified even if the sperm count is low. Thus, automated sperm analyzer can be used interchangeably with manual semen analysis for examining sperm concentration, motility and morphology.