Clinical presentation of gynecologic infections among Indian women.
OBJECTIVE
To study the clinical presentation of different gynecologic infections among Indian women.


METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study of 257 women that included clinical, cytologic, colposcopic, and microbiologic screening for various gynecologic infections.


RESULTS
Human papillomavirus (HPV) was the leading infection, affecting 127 (49.4%) women; however, overt warts were only seen in seven (2.7%) patients. Women infected with HPV had a 60.3-fold higher risk of developing a bleeding ectopia compared to those with other infections; women with an unhealthy cervix and cervical ectopias also had an increased risk of HPV infection (7.6- and 2.8-fold, respectively). Bacterial vaginosis, detected in 33.5% of the women studied, had an increased risk of bleeding ectopia (9.3-fold), cervical ectopia (3.1-fold), cervicitis (2.9-fold), vaginitis (6.9-fold), and cervical hypertrophy (2.1-fold). Chlamydial infection, detected in 23.3% of the patient population, was associated with an eightfold increase in the risk of an unhealthy cervix and a fourfold increase in risk of a hypertrophied cervix. Immunoglobulin-A antibodies to the herpes simplex virus were detected in 53 (20.6%) women. More than half (55.2%) of the women had two or more infections, and the mean delay of seeking medical treatment was 7-13 months.


CONCLUSIONS
The specific finding of bleeding cervices was associated with HPV and bacterial vaginosis, hypertrophied cervices with chlamydia and bacterial vaginosis, and unhealthy cervices with chlamydia and HPV infections.
Singh
V
V
Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology, Maulana Azad Medical College Campus, New Delhi, India.
Sehgal
A
A
Satyanarayana
L
L
Gupta
M M
MM
Parashari
A
A
Chattopadhya
D
D
D000328:Adult; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000473:pathology; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000473:pathology; D003127:Colposcopy; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000473:pathology*; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology; D006558:Herpes Genitalis / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007239:Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D027383:Papillomaviridae; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000473:pathology; D012307:Risk Factors; D014247:Trichomonas Vaginitis / Q000473:pathology; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000473:pathology; D002577:Uterine Cervical Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D016585:Vaginosis, Bacterial / Q000473:pathology