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Accu-Beads as a quality control measure for manual and automated methods of measuring sperm concentration-an
Darian D Vernon1, Jane E Johnson, Angela M Houwing
1Medical Experience Academy, Greenville Health System, Greenville, SC, USA.
Purpose:
To determine the precision and accuracy of Accu-Beads and their utility as a quality control product for manual and automated measurements of sperm concentration.
Methods:
This observational study was performed at an Assisted Reproductive Technology laboratory in a tertiary-care, university hospital. To simulate sperm concentration, bead concentrations were measured with the use of a manual and an automated method.
Results:
The manual counts did not vary significantly from the automated counts regardless of the concentration. However, the counts did vary between lots of low concentration of Accu-Beads and between the two different types of fixed counting chambers. The two bead concentrations used in this study were below the 95 % confidence interval for the values listed by the manufacturer.
Conclusion(S):
In our laboratory, Accu-Beads met enough of the requirements of a good control material to be acceptable for daily quality control use, especially if we set our own ranges of acceptability for each vial of Accu-Beads. It is necessary to evaluate each new lot of Accu-Beads when they are received and again if they are used with a different counting chamber.
