Evaluation of a disposable plastic Neubauer counting chamber for semen analysis
Received 13 September 2007; received in revised form 22 November 2007; accepted 26 November 2007. published online 25 April 2008.
Objective
To evaluate whether disposable plastic counting chambers effectively could replace nondisposable, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous glass hemocytometers.
Design
Evaluation of equipment in modern laboratory andrology. Comparison of results obtained with plastic chambers with results obtained with “gold-standard” glass hemocytometer counts.
Setting
Diagnostic laboratory for andrology.
Patient(s)
Twenty-one patients undergoing investigation for infertility problems.
Intervention(s)
No interventions with patients; sperm in diluted semen samples were used when patients had allowed the use for research and training.
Main Outcome Measure(s)
Sperm concentration, difference from results obtained with standard equipment.
Result(s)
In the first three experimental series, with use of standard routine phase-contrast microscopy, significantly lower count results were obtained consistently from the plastic chambers than from standard chambers. In the fourth series, with use of specialized equipment, equivalent results were obtained but with a considerably greater time commitment because of difficulties in distinguishing sperm adjacent to the gridlines in the plastic chambers.
Conclusion(s)
The plastic disposable chamber type was not suitable for routine semen analysis because results are variable depending on the microscope used, and increased time is necessary to do the assessment accurately.
aCentre for Human Reproductive Science, The Assisted Conception Unit, Birmingham Women's Health Care Trust, and Division of Reproductive and Child Health, The Medical School, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom
bCentre for Andrology and Sexual Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Reprint requests: Lars Björndahl, M.D., Ph.D., Centre for Andrology and Sexual Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge M52, S-141 86 Huddinge, Sweden (FAX: 46-8-31-36-91).
Presented as a poster at the Annual Meeting of the Nordic Association for Andrology in Stockholm, Sweden, August 31–September 1, 2006.
ABSTRACT