Screening for asymptomatic gonorrhea in males: a comparison of four techniques.
A total of 729 asymptomatic men were screened for gonococcal urethritis with four techniques: culture of urethral specimens, culture of first-catch urine sediment (FCUS), an enzyme immunoassay method (Gonozyme, Abbot Laboratories) for detection of gonococcal antigen in urethral specimens (EIA-Sb) and first-catch urine sediment (EIA-FCUS). The positivity rates of the aforementioned techniques were 0.13%, 0%, 2.33%, and 0.82%. In view of reduction of time and patients' discomfort as well as the closely comparable positivity rate (p less than 0.05) associated with the use of the EIA-FCUS technique, the latter method appears to be the simplest, most practical and reliable diagnostic tool for screening asymptomatic gonococcal urethritis.
Department of Public Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Patras, Greece.
M
M
Papapetropoulou
J
J
Detorakis
A
A
Arkoulis
J
J
Vervitas
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D006069:Gonorrhea / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D014526:Urethritis / Q000175:diagnosis