Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31775764›Full record

ArticleBiomedical engineering online2019

A collective tracking method for preliminary sperm analysis.

Sung-Yang Wei, Hsuan-Hao Chao, Han-Ping Huang, Chang Francis Hsu, Sheng-Hsiang Li, Long Hsu

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biomedical engineering online, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Sung-Yang WeiDepartment of Electrophysics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan.
Hsuan-Hao ChaoDepartment of Electrophysics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan.
Han-Ping HuangDepartment of Electrophysics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan.
Chang Francis HsuDepartment of Electrophysics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan.
Sheng-Hsiang LiDepartment of Medical Research, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Tamsui District, New Taipei City, 25160, Taiwan. lsh@mmh.org.tw.
Long HsuDepartment of Electrophysics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan. long@cc.nctu.edu.tw.
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University · TWMackay Memorial Hospital · TW

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundTotal motile sperm count (TMSC) and curvilinear velocity (VCL) are two important parameters in preliminary semen analysis for male infertility. Traditionally, both parameters are evaluated manually by embryologists or automatically using an expensive computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) instrument. The latter applies a point-tracking method using an image processing technique to detect, recognize and classify each of the target objects, individually, which is complicated. However, as semen is dense, manual counting is exhausting while CASA suffers from severe overlapping and heavy computation.

methodsWe proposed a simple frame-differencing method that tracks motile sperms collectively and treats their overlapping with a statistical occupation probability without heavy computation. The proposed method leads to an overall image of all of the differential footprint trajectories (DFTs) of all motile sperms and thus the overall area of the DFTs in a real-time manner. Accordingly, a theoretical DFT model was also developed to formulate the overall DFT area of a group of moving beads as a function of time as well as the total number and average speed of the beads. Then, using the least square fitting method, we obtained the optimal values of the TMSC and the average VCL that yielded the best fit for the theoretical DFT area to the measured DFT area.

resultsThe proposed method was used to evaluate the TMSC and the VCL of 20 semen samples. The maximum TMSC evaluated using the method is more than 980 sperms per video frame. The Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) between the two series of TMSC obtained using the method and the CASA instrument is 0.946. The PCC between the two series of VCL obtained using the method and CASA is 0.771. As a consequence, the proposed method is as accurate as the CASA method in TMSC and VCL evaluations.

conclusionIn comparison with the individual point-tracking techniques, the collective DFT tracking method is relatively simple in computation without complicated image processing. Therefore, incorporating the proposed method into a cell phone equipped with a microscopic lens can facilitate the design of a simple sperm analyzer for clinical or household use without advance dilution.

Indexed as

Normal DistributionSemen AnalysisTime FactorsComputer-assisted sperm analyzer (CASA)Curvilinear velocity (VCL)Frame differencingObject trackingTotal motile sperm count (TMSC)

Identifiers

PMID31775764
PMCPMC6882231
OpenAlexW2990271924

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.