Comprehensive assessment of vaginal infections using a single swab.

BACKGROUND

The decision to use a particular test to diagnose patients presenting with symptoms of vaginitis and/or STI is based primarily on the prevailing standards of care in the clinic at which the patient evaluation takes place. As a result, laboratory testing of vaginal samples for these patients often involves either an STI or a vaginitis test, but rarely both options simultaneously, which complicates the diagnosis and management of concurrent infections.

METHODS

Using de-identified remnant vaginal specimens from symptomatic patients previously tested for STI (

FINDINGS

The rate of STI/BV co-infection was 79.4% (227/286) in this symptomatic population, while that of STI/VVC was 27.0% (77/285). Women diagnosed with any one of the three STIs tested had an OR 2.86 (95% CI, 1.99, 4.11; p<0.0001) for a concurrent BV infection and OR 0.96 (95% CI, 0.67, 1.37; p=0.8085) for infection with

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that women being tested for STI have a high prevalence of co-infection with BV and a lower, although appreciable, prevalence of co-infection with VVC. The detection of co-occurring vaginal infections can be facilitated by molecular testing using a single sample.

Informations de copyright

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Competing interests: BVDP: Author’s institution received funding from BD Life Sciences for the conduct of this study and has also received study funding from Abbott, Cepheid, Cue, Hologic, MagIC, Rheonix and Roche. BVDP receives consulting fees and/honoraria from Abbott Rapid Diagnostics and Roche Molecular. SK, SP, VP and ET-C are employees of BD and own BD shares. PD and CA: no conflicts of interest.