Clinical conditions associated with positive complement fixation serology forChlamydiae

Abstract

SUMMARYThe hospital records of 242 patients with diagnostic chlamydial complement fixation (CF) titres (seroconversion and/or titre ≥ 64) found among 60000 patients screened for suspected viral illnesses were reviewed to study the clinical conditions associated with positive CF serology forChlamydiae. After excluding typical genitalC. trachomatisinfections, the majority of the remainder were considered to representC. psittaciinfections. Respiratory symptoms were the most common clinical manifestations of chlamydial infections detectable by CF, but the majority (58%) of the patients did not have pneumonia. Abdominal, neurological as well as urinary tract symptoms were common. Cutaneous, joint, cardiac, genital and ocular manifestations were also noted. Fever (≥ 38·5 °C) was present in 62% of the patients. The ESR was raised (≥ 20 mm/h) in the majority of the patients (83%), but the leucocyte count was usually (86%) within normal limits. Because the clinical spectrum ofC. psittaciinfections is apparently broad, serological tests for detecting antibodies toC. psittaci(e.g. CF) should be used widely in various clinical conditions and not for patients with pneumonia alone.