Comparing the clinical outcomes of intrauterine insemination by two different density gradient preparation methods.
BACKGROUND
Sperm preparation has play an integral part in the success of in-vitro fertilization. The aim of this study was to compare 2 different density gradient preparations for sperm separation in respect to sperm recovery, motility, motion parameters and clinical outcome after intrauterine insemination.


METHODS
One-hundred and 21 women who received intrauterine insemination due to ovulation dysfunction were randomly allocated into 2 groups, using either the Percoll (Amersham, Pharmacia Biotech AB, Sweden) or the PureSperm (Nidacon, Göteborg, Sweden) density gradient method for sperm preparation. The characteristics of sperm before and after separation and the clinical outcome of intrauterine insemination were compared between the 2 groups.


RESULTS
PureSperm and Percoll demonstrated comparable ability to recover the sperms with progressive motility. There was no difference in motion parameters and the number of sperm recovered with progressive motility between the Percoll and the PureSperm density gradient preparations. The clinical pregnancy rate was also comparable between the 2 groups, 12.5% (7/56) in the PureSperm group compared to 13.8% (9/65) in the Percoll group, (p > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Despite using different density composition and volume, PureSperm demonstrated clinical effect comparable to that of Percoll in preparing sperm for intrauterine insemination.
Tsai
Yung-Chieh
YC
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chi Mei Foundation Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan, ROC. yung0613@ms2.hinet.net
Lin
Mike Yan-Sheng
MY
Chen
Sheng-Hsieg
SH
Kang
Chieh-Yi
CY
Tsai
Yi-Ting
YT
Lin
Liang-Yin
LY
Chuan
Loo-Tao
LT
Huang
Kuo-Feng
KF
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007315:Insemination, Artificial / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D018873:Pregnancy Rate; D013074:Sperm Banks / Q000379:methods*; D013076:Sperm Count; D013081:Sperm Motility / Q000502:physiology