Accuracy of a self-collection kit for the microbiological study of the vaginal content

Abstract

Diagnosis of vaginal discharge is frequently performed in an empirical way, leading to inadequate treatment. This study tested the accuracy of a self-collection kit for microbiological study of the vaginal content. One hundred and forty-two women of Family Health Program units in Niterói and Piraí cities were enrolled in order to have their vaginal content studied. A brief explanation and a self-collection kit were provided in order to sample the vaginal content. The self-collection kit was composed of one empty plastic tube, two glass slides, a long handle cytobrush, an identification card and guideline notes. The vaginal sample was applied on the glass slides by the women and stained by Gram technique. A second sampling was done by the medical personnel. The microbiological diagnosis in a blinded analysis was made under optical microscopy. A validation diagnosis test was done taking the medical collection results as a gold standard. A total of 106 women had followed the protocol and were included in the study. Microbiological analysis was unsatisfactory in 12 cases (6 cases of self-collection material and 6 cases of medical collection). The microbiological analyses in the self-collection and in the medical collection material were respectively: bacterial vaginosis in 21.7% and 17.9%, non bacillar flora in 10.3% and 11.3%, vaginal trichomoniasis in 5.66% and 5.6%, candidiasis in 3.78% and 2.8% and a normal microbiota in 52.8% and 56.6%. The Kappa coefficient suggested a "very good correlation" of the microbiological results between the two methods of collection (K=0.7945). The selfcollection kit provides samples for microbiological analysis of the vaginal microbiota as good as medical collection.

Chlamydial infection in a high risk population: association with vaginal flora patterns

“…Unexpectedly, the BV rate in the present study was not only lower than in pregnant women attending a Primary Care Service [28] or an outpatient service specialized in infections in Obstetrics [6] in the same region, but was also lower than in non-pregnant Brazilian [29] and North-American women [24]. This low Total of patients may vary among the categories as some of the data was unavailable prevalence of bacterial vaginosis could partly be explained by the consideration that combined infection of vaginal candidosis and BV was analyzed separately from BV without co-infection.…”

Self-Sampling in the Diagnosis of Recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidosis

“…Several studies have shown that patients are in general satisfied with self-sampling [7Y9]. It is easy to perform, can be done in full privacy, and is well accepted [7,8,10]. None of our patients reported complaints pertaining to the vaginal self-sampling procedure.…”

Management of Recurrent Vulvo-Vaginal Candidosis as a Chronic Illness

“…In such cases, it may be worthwhile to provide patients with a set of swabs (with or without transport medium) for self-sampling at times of increased complaints, to be sent by regular post to the lab directly. This technique has been proven fruitful to pick up at least another 30% of positive patients that otherwise would have remained undiagnosed and most likely erroneously treated for other nonexisting diseases [17,18] . On the other hand, as lowering the load of infection leading to reduced symptoms are the main stay of suppressive therapy, the use of cultures in the absence of symptoms can be discussed.…”