SAMPLE ADEQUACY IN DETECTING CHLAMYDIA-TRACHOMATIS

Objective: Chlamydia trachomatis is an important etiological agent in female genital infection and may result in infertility, In recent year s rapid diagnostic methods have become widely used as alternatives to cell culture. Our objective was to evaluate the technique of direct fl uorescence assay (DFA) in estimating the presence of C. trachomatis. M ethod: Specimens taken from 40 infertile and 20 fertile women were exa mined by DFA for the presence of C. trachomatis, Results: Six of forty (15%) infertile women were found to be positive whereas no positive s pecimens were detected in the control group, When the specimens were g rouped into those which were adequate or inadequate, 19 and five speci mens, respectively, were adequate in the infertile and healthy groups. If only adequate specimens are included in estimating the presence of Chlamydia, the percentage is 31.6%, Conclusions: In order to use DFA as a more reliable and rapid diagnostic test of C. trachomatis in fema le genital infection, false-negativity must be eliminated, Specimens m ust be collected adequately and concentrated in order to achieve optim al diagnostic success.