Prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis infection in women attending a major gynaecological hospital in Greece: a cross-sectional study.
BACKGROUND
The prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis is not accurately estimated, since it is not a reportable disease.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the prevalence of T vaginalis infection in women attending a Greek gynaecological hospital and to evaluate four diagnostic methods for T vaginalis infection.


METHODS
255 symptomatic and 247 asymptomatic women were included in the study during 2006-07; 372 were Greek and 130 were immigrants. T vaginalis was detected in vaginal samples, using wet mount, culture in modified Diamond's medium, antigen detection and two PCR assays, targeting different regions of T vaginalis genome. Specimens were considered positive for T vaginalis, when tested positive either by culture or by both PCRs.


RESULTS
23 women (4.6%) were positive for T vaginalis. Seven of the 23 positive samples (30.4%) were only PCR-positive. Infection was more prevalent in symptomatic women (6.7%) than in asymptomatic ones (2.4%). T vaginalis was more frequently detected in immigrants (7.9%) than in Greek women (3.3%). Gardnerella vaginalis infection was significantly more frequent in women infected with T vaginalis. PCR was the most sensitive method (100%), followed by culture (69.6%), wet mount (69.6%) and latex agglutination (54.6%). Agreement between PCR and culture as well as wet mount examination was very good (kappa=0.79).


CONCLUSIONS
The study shows a relatively low percentage of trichomoniasis in the female population living in Athens. The infection was more prevalent among immigrants, and a proportion of the infected women was asymptomatic. The tested methods had good agreement and PCR was found to improve the diagnostic yield considerably.
Piperaki
Evangelia-Theophano
ET
Department of Microbiology, Medical School, University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece.
Theodora
Marianna
M
Mendris
Michael
M
Barbitsa
Louisa
L
Pitiriga
Vassiliki
V
Antsaklis
Aris
A
Tsakris
Athanassios
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D015995:Prevalence; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods; D014247:Trichomonas Vaginitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014246:Trichomonas vaginalis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014621:Vagina / Q000821:virology; D055815:Young Adult