The Sperminator/SAMi EQA (external quality assessment) scheme is for users of this CASA system only. EQA schemes which send out physical semen specimens have demonstrated poor levels of agreement between centres and as a result fail to give the intended level of confidence in the service. This is partly due to the variation associated with different methods or application of methods but also because of the significant increase in the level of aggregation observed in pooled fixed specimens as shown below.
Highly aggregated EQA specimen which cannot be assessed accurately by an method which relies on homogeneous cell distribution. CASA users should examine aggregation-free fields but this results in method bias.
With this in mind we have developed a simple scheme based on the analysis of short video clips which have been generated by previous tests. These are downloaded from our website www.procreative-diagnostics.com/EQA and tested by individual labs. They then report sperm concentration, motility and velocity back to the website where the results get compared with other users
For more details email: info@procreative-diagnostics.com