Prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in pregnant women and predictive value of clinical diagnosis.
OBJECTIVE
To study the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis (BV) in pregnant women and to evaluate the accuracy of clinical criteria for the diagnosis of BV.


METHODS
In this observational study 502 asymptomatic pregnant women were screened for bacterial vaginosis in a rural health care facility by Gram stain. Accuracy of clinical diagnosis using individual and two of Amsel's criteria was evaluated.


RESULTS
The frequency of BV was 8.6% by Nugent's method. For Amsel's criteria, sensitivity and specificity was 51.2 and 98%, with 71% PPV and 95.5% NPV. The most sensitive individual criterion was vaginal pH, but with lowest specificity. The criterion with highest specificity was clue cells. The combination of the two criteria, vaginal pH and positive amine test, had best positive and negative predictive values 60.5 and 97.8%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The diagnosis of BV according to Amsel's criteria may be simplified using a combination of the two criteria, vaginal pH and amine test, in settings where microscopy or Gram staining is not available.
Dadhwal
Vatsla
V
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, India. vatslad@hotmail.com
Hariprasad
Roopa
R
Mittal
Suneeta
S
Kapil
Arti
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014621:Vagina / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology; D016585:Vaginosis, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult