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To assess correlations between the content of the diamines putrescine and cadaverine in vaginal fluid and the clinical manifestations of vaginitis, a rapid procedure for the determination of diamines has been developed. The procedure involves thin-layer chromatography of the dansylated vaginal washings; then the fluorescence of dansyl diamines is compared with that of dansyl alanine. For 520 college women, the result of the test for diamines was positive in 173 (88%) of 197 women with nonspecific vaginitis or vaginitis due to Trichomonas vaginalis and was negative in 291 (90%) of 323 women without nonspecific vaginitis or vaginitis due to T. vaginalis. The diamine content of vaginal fluid specimens after therapy with metronidazole was correlated with the clinical response to treatment.

To explore of the association of bacterial vaginosis with anaerobic bacterial growth in the vagina, we measured the redox potential (Eh) at the vaginal epithelial surface of women with this syndrome. Among normal women, the value for Eh in the vagina ranged from +322 mV to +137 mV (mean, +170 mV); whereas among women with bacterial vaginosis, the Eh ranged from +71 mV to as low as -257 mV (mean, -92 mV). Following successful treatment of the vaginosis with metronidazole, the vaginal Eh increased to a mean of +208 mV. Thus, the low redox potential in the vagina during bacterial vaginosis appears to be due to microbial metabolism in the vagina and does not represent a persistent host factor responsible for the anaerobic vaginal flora. Any host factors responsible for bacterial vaginosis remain to be elucidated.