Plasma cell endometritis was frequently present in women with bacterial vaginosis and without other vaginal or cervical infections. This suggests the possibility of an association between bacterial vaginosis and nonchlamydial, nongonococcal, upper genital tract infection.

The Binax NOW assay (Binax, Inc., Portland, Maine) and the BD Directigen EZ assay (Becton Dickinson and Company, Sparks, Md.), two new rapid immunoassays for detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), as well as the BD Directigen RSV assay (DRSV) (Becton Dickinson and Company) and direct immunofluorescence staining (DFA) were compared with culture for detection of RSV in fresh specimens from both children and adults during the 2002-2003 respiratory virus season. The majority (95%) of specimens were nasal or nasopharyngeal washes or aspirates. A total of 47 (26%) were culture positive for RSV. The overall sensitivities of DFA (n ‫؍‬ 149), NOW (n ‫؍‬ 118), EZ (n ‫؍‬ 88), and DRSV (n ‫؍‬ 180) compared with culture (n ‫؍‬ 180) were 93, 89, 59, and 77%, respectively. The specificities of DFA, NOW, EZ, and DRSV were 97, 100, 98, and 96%, respectively. However, when results were separated into those from children and those from adults, DFA was the only rapid test adequate for detection of RSV (sensitivity of 100% compared to 0, 0, and 25% for NOW, EZ, and DRSV, respectively) in adults. For children the sensitivities of DFA, NOW, EZ, and DRSV were 93, 94, 72, and 81%. The NOW assay was the most sensitive and specific and the easiest to perform of the kit tests for detecting RSV in children. None of these three rapid kit tests was sensitive for detecting RSV in specimens from adults. DFA remains the rapid method of choice for detecting RSV in the adult population.Every year respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of severe respiratory tract infections in infants and young children. RSV is now also recognized as a pathogen in adults, with frail elderly and severely immunocompromised people at greatest risk for serious infections (4). Rapid detection of RSV infections in both children and adults is important to guide therapeutic decisions and to prevent nosocomial transmission. Although direct immunofluorescence staining (DFA) of nasal or nasopharyngeal washes or aspirates is frequently reported to be the most sensitive rapid method of RSV detection (5,8,9), this method requires highly trained technologists and highquality reagents and equipment for optimal sensitivity (7). Many laboratories, unable to meet these requirements, have chosen less technically demanding kit immunoassays for rapid testing.The BD Directigen RSV enzyme immunoassay (DRSV) (Becton Dickinson and Company, Sparks, Md.) has been a commonly used, rapid RSV assay. Reported sensitivities range from 61 to 86%, with specificities of 74 to 95% (1,5,8,9). In a study in our laboratory during the 2001-2002 respiratory virus season, DRSV had a sensitivity of 71% and a specificity of 90% compared with DFA and culture (M. J. Ohm-Smith, P. S. Nassos, and B. L. Haller, Abstr. 103rd Gen. Meet. Amer. Soc. Microbiol., abstr. C357, 2003).Because both false-negative and false-positive results can have adverse consequences, we were concerned with the performance of DRSV. Therefore, we chose to evaluate two new immunochromatographic assays for detection of ...

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