title: Bacterial vaginosis: a critical analysis of current knowledge.
abstract: Bacterial vaginosis (BV), the change from a Lactobacillus-dominant vaginal microbiota to an anaerobic and facultative bacterial dominance, is associated with pathological sequelae. In many BV-positive women their microbiota is in fact normal and unrelated to pathology. Whether or not the dominance of BV-associated bacteria persists depends upon interactions between host and bacterial factors. Inconsistencies in diagnosis and erroneous associations with pathology may be due to a failure to differentiate between sub-populations of women. It is only in those women with a BV diagnosis in which the identified bacteria are atypical and persist that BV may be a clinical problem requiring intervention.
  
  
  
  Improved diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis is needed to accurately determine its role in pathology.
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nasioudis
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.|Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Sao Paulo University Medical School, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Linhares
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Ledger
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Witkin
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007778:Lactobacillus; D064307:Microbiota; D014621:Vagina; D016585:Vaginosis, Bacterial
keywords: Bacterial vaginosis; diagnosis; gene polymorphism; innate immunity; vaginal microbiota