Retrospective study investigating the performance of the SQA-vision analyser compared with manual semen analysis

The objective of this study was to compare the results of semen analysis using the manual method and the SQA-Vision sperm analyser after four years of practice and with a large cohort of patients. This was a comparative study of 1130 cases collected for semen analysis between October 2019 and October 2023, which were analysed simultaneously and independently by different operators using the manual microscopic method and an SQA-V automated analyser. For each sample, sperm concentration, progressive motility, motility, normal morphology, and round cells count were performed. There was no significant difference between the SQA-V method and manual assessment for all sperm parameters (Mann-Whitney test p > 0.05). According to the parameter studied, there was a strong correlation (rho = 0.81) and a very high correlation (rho = 0.98) between manual assessment and the SQA-V method. In the analysis of sperm concentration, the sensitivity and specificity were 0.90 and 0.99, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for the analysis of sperm progressive motility were 0.98 and 0.99, respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity for the analysis of sperm motility were 0.87 and 0.99, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for the analysis of normal morphology were 0.88 and 0.99, respectively. Regarding the analysis of round cells, the sensitivity and specificity were 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. The results of this retrospective study indicate that the SQA-V system offers satisfactory performance for routine sperm analysis.