Clinical usefulness of seminal cytology

Motility, number and morphology of sperms are very important in semen examination. Nevertheless, observation of germ cells or other epithelial cells can contribute to the improvement of the clinical diagnosis. In the present paper three clinical cases are presented where the cytological characteristic were the most important criteria to define the pathologies. Finally, some images published by the WHO in the last edition of the "Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen", Fifth Edition, 2010 are discussed; in these images, germ cells are erroneously diagnosed as macrophages. The objective of the present work is to underline the importance of the cytology for a correct interpretation of certain seminal pathologies.