Complications of Urogenital Chlamydial Infection in Women

The objective of the research was to identify the spectrum of complications in women with chronic urogenital chlamydial infection. Materials and methods. There were examined 128 women with chronic inflammatory diseases of genital organs at the age of 16-40 years who were diagnosed with urogenital chlamydial infection and 25 apparently healthy women. In both women with chlamydial infection and healthy ones, urogenital chlamydial infection was diagnosed based on the data of clinical examination and the results of laboratory tests (the identification of chlamydial morphological structure on the pathologic specimens stained according to the Romanowsky-Giemsa method; the identification of chlamydial antigens using the direct immunofluorescence technique; the study of Chlamydia trachomatis antibody titers using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). Results. According to the results of our study, chlamydiae were the most common causes of inflammatory lesions of the urogenital organs in women of different ages leading to different reproductive complications and affecting females mostly at the age of 21-30 years. In women of Group I and Group II, chronic chlamydial disease was detected; disease duration ranged from 6 months to more than 2 years. Miscarriages, infertility (primary, secondary), ectopic pregnancy (tubal, ovarian) were the severest and the most numerous reproductive complications in the examined patients. Conclusion. Chronic chlamydial infection is the most common disease of the female urinogenital organs leading to a wide spectrum of complications including infertility (primary, secondary), miscarriages, ectopic pregnancy (tubal, ovarian), chronic abdominal pain, sexual dysfunction (low libido, hypo/anorgasmia, painful intercourse, neurotic symptoms).

Evaluation of a real-time nucleic acid sequencebased amplification (nasba) assay for diagnosis of urogenital chlamydial infection

This study was aimed to evaluate a new realtime nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA-Real- Time) assay for diagnosis of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infection. A total of 193 patients aged 16 to 42 (mean age, 22,8 years) were examined, with most of them having symptoms of urogenital infection. Cervical and urethral swabs from women and men, respectively, were investigated with the use of cell culture method, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and NASBA- Real-Time. C. trachomatis infection was diagnosed in 29 patients (15 %): in 21 patients - by all the three methods, whereas 8 samples were culture negative. Sensitivity of PCR and NASBA- Real-Time methods were 100 %, cell culture method - 78,4 %. Negative predictive value of PCR and NASBA-Real-Time was found to be 100 %, and that of cell culture - 95,3 %. Specificity as well as positive predictive values of all the three methods equaled 100%. Thus, the new real-time NASBA-Real-Time assay was shown to be a very sensitive and specific test, which can be recommended as a confirmatory method for diagnosis of urogenital chlamydial infection.