Detection of Sperm Quality In just 12 seconds

Ever felt curious about the quality of your sperm? How much, is it still good or not and so on? Now, researchers found a quick test to determine sperm quality in just 12 seconds. Remarkably again, this test can be done at home.

Loes Segerink and colleagues from the MESA + Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands is the researcher who developed the test. They make a microfluidic chip size of 10 cm can detect male fertility through sperm.

Many men who want to test the quality of sperm but lazy or embarrassed to go to the doctor. Based on the researchers created the device. "With the successful systems we create, the problem can be overcome," he said as quoted Segerink from New Scientist, Wednesday (10/2/2010).

The chip works by counting sperm cells that were damaged through an electrode. From there is to know how many sperm are still functioning or not.

Generally, men who do the sperm test to the doctor took him about an hour to analyze. But the chip is made by Dutch researchers, you can save up to 48 seconds.

"This chip takes only 12 seconds with an error rate that is not much different from the calculation of sperm in general. This chip is manufactured to be applied at home than in hospitals," said Segerink.

But according to Michael Dunn, a researcher from the University of Oxford, the chip behind the advantage that there is potential for harm. "If the patient is not accompanied by experts as a test, there could be errors of interpretation and information about the fertility of their sperm," said Dunn.

"Even if a technology is ready for the market, the human ability in using technology that is worth considering," he added.

According to WHO, a normal sperm count is around 10-20 million per milliliter, or about 2-6 milliliters. The characteristics of healthy sperm, among others the amount above 10 million permililiter, fast and straight movements, the shape is relatively normal, good life skills, no bacteria and leukospermia a lot.

To test the quality of sperm, there are a variety of laboratory tests that can be done include:

   1. Test Semen (semen) complete, ie minimal steps to assess the categories of male fertility and scrotal function.
   2. Spermatozoa function tests, to determine the ability of sperm and live sperm membrane integrity.
   3. Test Post-coitus, which is related test Transportation sperm after intercourse.
   4. Test Microbiology and Virology, namely the analysis of semen by culture and test bacteria for antibiotic resistance.
   5. Immunological tests, yaiu rate of antibodies in the semen of their own sperm or the wife of blood serum antibodies.