Artificial intelligence fluorescence method versus traditional flow cytometry for detection of sperm DFI in oligospermia patients.
- Author:
Shao-Bin LIN
1
;
Gui-Quan WANG
1
;
Ping LI
1
Author Information
1. Department of Reproductive Medicine, Center of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women and Children's Hospital Affiliated to Xiamen University / Xiamen Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Xiamen, Fujian 361003, China.
- Publication Type:Comparative Study
- Keywords:
DNA fragmentation index;
sperm chromatin structure assay;
artificial intelligence;
oligospermia
- MeSH:
Humans;
Male;
Flow Cytometry/methods*;
Oligospermia/genetics*;
Artificial Intelligence;
Spermatozoa;
Adult;
DNA Fragmentation;
Case-Control Studies;
Fluorescence
- From:
National Journal of Andrology
2025;31(2):115-120
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE:To explore the influence of oligospermia (OS) on the detection of sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) by fluorescence method based on artificial intelligence (AI) recognition and flow cytometry-based sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA).
METHODS:We collected semen samples from 201 males, including 50 azoospermia (AS) patients as negative controls, 90 OS patients (sperm concentration >0×10⁶/ml and <15×10⁶/ml), and 61 normal men (sperm concentration ≥15×10⁶/ml). Then we subdivided the OS patients into a mild OS (sperm concentration ≥10×10⁶/ml and <15×10⁶/ml), a moderate OS (sperm concentration ≥5×10⁶/ml and <10×10⁶/ml) and a severe/extremely severe OS group (sperm concentration >0×10⁶/ml and <5×10⁶/ml), with 30 cases in each group, and compared the results of DFI detection between the AI fluorescence method and traditional flow cytometry.
RESULTS:The DFI value detected by AI fluorescence method showed statistically significant difference from that detected by flow cytometry in the AS, moderate OS and severe/extremely severe OS groups (P<0.01), the former even lower than the latter, but not in the normal control and the mild OS groups (P > 0.05). In the AS group, a dramatically lower rate of non-0 results was achieved by AI fluorescence method than by flow cytometry (8% vs 100%, P<0.01). The DFI values detected by AI fluorescence method exhibited a good linear correlation to those obtained by flow cytometry in the normal control and mild OS groups (R2 = 0.7470; R2 = 0.7180), but a poor linear correlation in the OS full-sample, moderate OS and severe/extremely severe OS groups (R2 = 0.3092; R2 = 0.3558; R2 = 0.2147).
CONCLUSION:The AI fluorescence method has a higher specificity and is more suitable than flow cytometry for detection of sperm DFI in OS patients. The DFI values obtained by the two methods are consistent with sperm concentration ≥10×10⁶/ml, but the accuracy of the results of detection may be affected with sperm concentration >0×10⁶/ml and <10×10⁶/ml.
