Motile sperm organelle morphology examination: Toward a consensus?

Because it could constitute an additional tool for Assisted Reproductive Technologies decisions, Motile Sperm Organelle Morphology Examination (MSOME) has received an increased attention, especially for its applications for diagnosis and prognosis. On the methodological side, most of teams use a similar definition of a normal spermatozoon observed with MSOME. On the contrary, the classification of the abnormal sperms is less consensual because at least six classifications were published. No satisfying standard is published. Furthermore, the nature of vacuoles observed with MSOME is widely discussed. Initially considered as nuclear, some authors rather suggested an acrosomic origin, or a mixed origin, while the others give arguments for a nuclear origin. Moreover, very few data concerning thresholds are available and the MSOME indications are still controversial. So, the MSOME is a tool of which evaluation is in progress and its clinical interests are not demonstrated at the moment. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.