Assessment of Vaginal Lactobacillary Flora in Wet Mount and Fresh or Delayed Gram's Stain

Abstract

Objective: The assessment of the vaginal lactobacillary flora helps to direct further diagnostic microbiologic investigations in genital infectious disease and seems to represent a powerful tool in predicting infectious morbidity and preterm labor during pregnancy. In the absence of a “gold standard,” we studied the variations in assessing lactobacillary morphotypes according to the method used.