Anaerobes in men with urethritis

Abstract

SUMMARY Sixty-four men with non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU), seven with gonococcal urethritis (GU), and 30 who had no symptoms or signs of urethritis were studied. Chlarnydia trachomatis was isolated from urethral specimens taken from 22% of the men with NGU, and 1 8/o with GU, but not from those who did not have urethritis even though 20 (67%) of them had a history of NGU, GU, or both. The chlamydial isolation rate for men having NGU for the first time was 30%7o. Ureaplasma urealyticum was isolated from 42% of the men with NGU, 43% of men with GU, and 27% of those without urethritis.In addition to aerobes anaerobes were isolated frequently from men whether or not they had urethritis, the most common being anaerobic Corynebacteria, peptococci, and micro-organisms of the Bacteroides-Fusobacteria group. There was no appreciable difference in the overall isolation of anaerobes from men with NGU (89%) or from those without disease (8007o). The rate of isolation of a Gram-negative anaerobic bacillus from men with NGU (50%) was, however, strikingly different to that from men with GU (14%) or from those without disease (13%o). Furthermore, this bacillus was recovered from 28 (56Db) of 50 men with NGU who were considered chlamydia-negative and from 19 (61 %) of 31 men who were both chlamydia-negative and ureaplasma-negative. The effect of antibiotic treatment was evaluated in a few patients only, so that although those from whom the Gram-negative bacillus was eliminated by tetracycline recovered clinically there is a need for a prospective therapeutic trial to evaluate further the importance of the bacillus.

Anaerobic bacteria in men with urethritis

“…We found similar anaerobic isolation rates as previously reported [2,8], Peptostreptococcus spp. being the most frequent isolate [2,8,9,1 I].…”

Black-pigmented Gram-negative anaerobes in genito-urinary tract and pelvic infections

“…Knowledge of the contribution of the blackpigmented Gram-negative anaerobic bacilli to the normal flora of the genito-urinary tract is essen-224 tial for understanding the pathological processes. In men, anaerobic Gram-positive cocci [2] are a major part of the normal urethral flora but the Gram-negative Bacteroides, Prevotella and Porphyromonas are not generally found, although there is some evidence that "Bacteroides" ureolyticus is a normal urethral resident [3].…”

Isolation ofBacteroides ureolyticus from the genital tract of men with and without non-conococcal urethritis

“…Other infectious agents may have a role in th6 35-67.5 % of cases with an unexplained aetiology. Fontaine et al (5) suggested that an anaerobic gram negative bacillus, later identified as Bacteroides ureolyticus (6), might play a role in NGU and called it an NGU-associated anaerobe. It was isolated from 50 % of men with NGU attending a venereal disease clinic, but from only 13 % of men without NGU.…”