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Automatic Tracking and Motility Analysis of Human Sperm in Time-Lapse Images
Journal article

Automatic Tracking and Motility Analysis of Human Sperm in Time-Lapse Images

Leonardo F Urbano, Puneet Masson, Matthew VerMilyea and Moshe Kam
IEEE transactions on medical imaging, v 36(3), pp 792-801
Mar 2017
PMID: 27875219

Abstract

Algorithm design and analysis Computer assisted semen analysis (CASA) Head Heuristic algorithms human sperm imaging Instruments JPDAF Radar tracking sperm motility sperm tracking Target tracking Videos
We present a fully automated multi-sperm tracking algorithm. It has the demonstrated capability to detect and track simultaneously hundreds of sperm cells in recorded videos while accurately measuring motility parameters over time and with minimal operator intervention. Algorithms of this kind may help in associating dynamic swimming parameters of human sperm cells with fertility and fertilization rates. Specifically, we offer an image processing method, based on radar tracking algorithms, that detects and tracks automatically the swimming paths of human sperm cells in timelapse microscopy image sequences of the kind that is analyzed by fertility clinics. Adapting the well-known joint probabilistic data association filter (JPDAF), we automatically tracked hundreds of human sperm simultaneously and measured their dynamic swimming parameters over time. Unlike existing CASA instruments, our algorithm has the capability to track sperm swimming in close proximity to each other and during apparent cell-to-cell collisions. Collecting continuously parameters for each sperm tracked without sample dilution (currently impossible using standard CASA systems) provides an opportunity to compare such data with standard fertility rates. The use of our algorithm thus has the potential to free the clinician from having to rely on elaborate motility measurements obtained manually by technicians, speed up semen processing, and provide medical practitioners and researchers with more useful data than are currently available.

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76 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Engineering, Biomedical
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Imaging Science & Photographic Technology
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
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