title: Vaginal wet mounts on asymptomatic adolescent females; are they beneficial?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Wet mounts are commonly performed at the time of pelvic exam in some settings; however, there is a paucity of data on their usefulness in asymptomatic teen patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine if wet mounts in asymptomatic teen women are useful in detecting gonorrhea or chlamydia, when compared with DNA amplification testing.
  
  
  METHODS
  93 consecutive charts for asymptomatic adolescent female patients seen for a routine visit were retrospectively reviewed. Data was collected for vaginal pH, presence or absence of discharge on physical exam, appearance of cervix, wet mount results, and cervical testing results. Outcome measures were wet mount findings and result of DNA amplification test on cervical sample for gonorrhea and chlamydia
  
  
  RESULTS
  Wet mounts were abnormal in 29 (31.2%) patients. There was no significant relationship between abnormal wet mount and positive Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis cultures (P = 0.083). After excluding abnormal wet mounts due to Trichomonas vaginalis, BV or Candida, all remaining patients with positive N gonorrhoeae and C trachomatis had normal wet mounts. For N gonorrhoeae, the wet mount had a sensitivity of 0% and specificity of 92.6%. For C trachomatis, the wet mount had a sensitivity of 0% and specificity of 92.1%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Wet mounts were not useful to detect N gonorrhoeae and C trachomatis in asymptomatic teen patients. The finding of T vaginalis and BV in these asymptomatic patients may justify continuing wet mount evaluation but this practice needs further study to determine if treatment in this population will result in clinically significant effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lankenau Hospital, Wynnewood, PA 19096, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Stampler
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lieberman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fraga
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006069:Gonorrhea / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit; D008853:Microscopy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014621:Vagina / Q000382:microbiology; D016585:Vaginosis, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology