title: Audit of treatment and contact-tracing rates in immediate (presumptive) versus delayed (polymerase chain reaction) diagnosis of chlamydial infection.
abstract: An audit of all cases of chlamydial infection diagnosed in men at the Edinburgh genitourinary (GU) medicine clinic over a six-month period from January 2003 is reported. In all, 189 men identified as requiring treatment for possible chlamydial infection on first attendance (because of contact with a partner with chlamydia or the diagnosis of non-gonococcal urethritis [NGU] on microscopy), who later proved chlamydia-positive by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), were compared with 83 men in whom infection was identified only on receipt of a PCR result. Treatment rates were 100% in the first group and 97.6% in the second group (chi(2) 0.046, P<0.05). In men presumptively diagnosed and treated, 88.6% of contacts identified were confirmed as traced, compared with 90% confirmed as traced in the group diagnosed by PCR alone. Our audit suggests that identifying men with chlamydial NGU by routine microscopy may carry a small but significant advantage in increasing treatment rates, but makes no difference to contact-tracing success rate.
authors: Department of Genitourinary Medicine, Level 1, Lauriston Building, Lothian University Hospitals, Edinburgh EH3 9HA, Scotland, UK.
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Fernando
authors: D J
authors: DJ
authors: Clutterbuck
mesh_terms: D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D002692:Chlamydia trachomatis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016358:Contact Tracing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008485:Medical Audit; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D015231:Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D014526:Urethritis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology