Personalized approach to the diagnosis and treatment of recurrent forms of bacterial vaginosis

Abstract

According to world statistics, bacterial vaginosis (BV) occupies one of the first places among vaginal diseases. The frequency of its distribution in the population ranges from 12% to 80% and depends on the contingent of women examined. BV develops mainly in women of reproductive age: in 80–87% of women with pathological vaginal discharge and 37–40% of pregnant women. Aim. To evaluate the effectiveness of three-stage therapy for recurrent and combined forms of BV based on the characteristics of the microbiome of the genital tract in women of early reproductive age. Materials and methods. We observed 445 women, who were divided into the following clinical groups. The IP group included 174 (39.10±2.31%) women with a confirmed diagnosis of recurrent BV. The IIP group included 153 (34.38±2.25%) women in whom BV was combined with cervicitis of nonspecific etiology. Group IIIP included 85 (19.10±1.86%) patients with a verified diagnosis of recurrent BV in combination with vulvovaginal candidiasis. The comparison group included 33 (7.42±1.24%) women, whose examination results corresponded to the reference values. Verification of the diagnosis in patients was carried out when contacting the antenatal clinic, based on the anamnesis, the nature of the complaints, and the results of clinical and laboratory examination methods. Laboratory examination included: pH – measurement of vaginal fluid using colpotest; bacterioscopic (urethra, cervical canal, vagina, rectum), bacteriological examination and polymerase chain reaction method in real time characterized the vaginal biotope. Patients with recurrent BV were offered three-stage therapy according to a personalized algorithm we developed, taking into account concomitant vaginal pathology. Results. The data obtained indicated an improvement in the quality of life of patients who underwent a course of three-stage therapy. The clinical effect showed that there were no relapses of the disease in patients of the IIIP group in 83% of cases, in the IIP and IP groups – in 90% and 91% of women, respectively. The highest frequency of relapses after therapy after 6 and 12 months was observed in patients of group IIIP, which amounted to 6% and 8% of Clinical cases (p<0.05). Conclusion. Our data indicate that the use of the proposed diagnostic algorithm and three-stage therapy for recurrent and combined forms of BV made it possible to reduce the frequency of reproductive losses in patients in the prospective study groups: spontaneous miscarriages in early and late gestation – in 6.29, ectopic pregnancies – by 5.54 times, premature births by 3.65 times. The frequency of normal term births in women in the prospective study groups after three-stage therapy increased by 1.4 times.

Keywords

• bacterial vaginosis
• vaginitis
• microbiome of the genital tract
• amsel criterion