Premium
Sperm acrosin levels in semen: comparison between ACCU‐SPERM and Kennedy's methods
Author(s) -
Ikemoto I.,
Fanning L.,
Loughlin K. R.,
Agarwal A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
andrologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1439-0272
pISSN - 0303-4569
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0272.1994.tb00801.x
Subject(s) - acrosin , sperm , semen , concordance , andrology , medicine , acrosome
Summary. The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity of a new acrosin activity assay, ACCU‐SPERM, and to correlate these results with the original Kennedy method. Thirty‐nine specimens (26 patients and 13 donors) of 54 (72%) were found to be in the normal range (>25 μIU acrosin/10 6 sperm) by the Kennedy method; the other 15 specimens were in either the indeterminate or subfertile range (< 14 μIU). However, according to the ACCU‐SPERM method, (normal: 6.6–27 AAI; infertile: < 3.6), 90% of specimens (49 of 54) whose acrosin activity was measured were in the subfertile or infertile range. Similarly, only 28% (4 of 14) of donors in the ACCU‐SPERM method were in the normal range in contrast to the 93% (13 of 14) in Kennedy. After calculating the ACCU‐SPERM normal range in our laboratory using the linear regression curve between the acrosin values generated by the Kennedy and ACCU‐SPERM methods, we again compared results of the two methods. The new normal range of > 1.82 AAI in ACCU‐SPERM corresponded to > 25 μIU in the Kennedy method; similarly a value of < 1.35 AAI in ACCU‐SPERM corresponded to < 14 μIU in the Kennedy technique. Analysis of the results generated by the two methods revealed a poor correlation with a positive concordance of 51% and a negative concordance of 50% in both assays. These results strongly suggest that the ACCU‐SPERM method for measurement of acrosin activity is not a reliable assay.