C. trachomatisin Female Reproductive Tract Infections and RFLP-Based Genotyping: A 16-Year Study from a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Presence ofChlamydia trachomatisin endocervix was determined in 2466 women attending a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi, India over a period of 16 years, using a monoclonal-based direct immunofluorescence assay, tissue culture isolation, and a conventional PCR assay.Chlamydiaantigen could be detected in 391 out of 2466 (15.85%) of patients studied; in 27.27% women with PID, 16.74% women with cervicitis, 16.03% women with infertility, and 12.06% women with adverse pregnancy outcomes, respectively. There was a statistically significant decreasing trend inChlamydiaantigen positivity between the years 1994–1999 and 2000–2004; the apparent decline in antigen positivity between the years 2000–2004 and 2005–2010 was not statistically significant. Antigen detection assay detected equal number of positives as the PCR assay; tissue culture isolation demonstrated lower positivity. In a few representative specimens from cervicitis patients, genotyping was done using RFLP pattern analysis ofC. trachomatisMOMP gene amplified by PCR assay, all of these belonged toChlamydia trachomatisserovar E.