The statistical foundation of the reference population for semen analysis included in the sixth edition of the WHO manual: a critical reappraisal of the evidence.

ABSTRACT: In the most recent version of the 'WHO Laboratory Manual For The Examination And Processing Of Human Semen', the updated target population used to infer reference values included 3589 fertile subjects, representative of 12 countries and 5 continents, and 10 studies. We have critically evaluated the newly proposed distribution of semen examination results using an approach borrowed from clinical chemistry laboratories and based on the recommendations of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry for estimation of reference intervals. Surprisingly, most prerequisites to produce common reference intervals through multicentric data were not met. Moreover, when we assessed with the bootstrap method the descriptive reference values obtained from raw data of the 10 individual studies for

SUBMITTER: Paffoni A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9527466 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature