Molecular Diagnosis of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) in Symptomatic Women of Puducherry by a Commercial Real Time Multiplex PCR, FTD Urethritis Plus - A Preliminary Report

Abstract

This study relates to the prevalence of common non-viral sexually transmitted infections in symptomatic women of Puducherry. Endocervical swabs were collected from 41 symptomatic women attending as outpatients in OB&G department of Mahatma Gandhi Medical College Hospital, Puducherry, using special swabs (eSwab) and transported to Microbiology department. DNA was extracted from these swabs and real time multiplex PCR was performed using FTD Urethritis plus in Rotor-Gene Q series 3000 (QIAGEN, Germany). The kit targets seven pathogens, viz., Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoea, Trichomonas vaginalis, Mycoplasma hominis, M. genitalium, Ureaplasma urealyticum and U. parvum. Among 41 symptomatic women, 17 were positive for single pathogen (U.parvum-11, U.urealyticum-4 and M.hominis-2) and six patients were positive for two or more pathogens. Interestingly, none of the patients were positive for genital chlamydiasis and gonorrhea. The significance of U.parvum as a potential pathogen needs to be confirmed. There was no statistical difference between the positive and negative patients among the different age groups.

Keywords

• chlamydia trachomatis
• neisseria gonorrhoea
• trichomonas vaginalis
• mycoplasma hominis
• m. genitalium
• ureaplasma