Chlamydial infection in female lower genital tract and its correlation with cervical smear abnormalities

Abstract

Background: It is widely known that infection by Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is the most common curable sexually transmitted infection (STI) among the young population. Chlamydial cervicitis has been suspected in the past to be a risk factor for squamous intraepithelial neoplasia (SIL) and cervical cancer on the basis of case-control comparisons of serological tests. Methods: A total of 110 women with symptomatic cervicitis were examined and samples for microbiologic detection of Chlamydia trachomatis antigen were obtained. Colposcopic, cytologic and microbiologic analyses were performed. All results were statistically analysed and correlated. Results: 41 patients (37.2 %) were found positive for Chlamydia trachomatis antigen (Group I) and 69 patients (62.8 %) were negative for Chlamydia trachomatis antigen (Group II). When compared to group II, the chlamydia-infected group I of women presented a larger percentage of dyspareunia (60 %), and the dysuric complaints were more common. The chlamydia-positive group revealed a higher incidence of atypical squamous metaplasia (52.5 % vs 27.9 %). Among the women with positive ELISA for chlamydia, a higher percentage of low-grade SIL was observed (6.3 % vs 3.6 %). Conclusions: Chlamydial infection, especially chlamydial cervicitis occurs often among young women of reproductive age. In these women, a good clinical assessment is necessitated including previous clinical history record, as well as detailed microbiologic, cytologic and colposcopic evaluations (Tab. 5, Ref. 19 Acknowledgement:We would like to thank the nursing and laboratory personnel of our hospital for their assistance in completing the current study.

Reproductive Tract infections and Premalignant Lesions of Cervix: Evidence from Women Presenting at the Cancer Detection Centre of the Indian Cancer Society, Delhi, 2000–2012

“…Peitsidis et al [14] in Greece discovered that women infected with chlamydia had almost twice the incidence of atypical squamous metaplasia compared to women not infected with chlamydia [14]. Similar findings were observed in a study in the UK where infection with chlamydia or bacterial vaginosis was independent risk factor for vaginal HPV infection [15].…”

Persistence rate of cervical human papillomavirus infections and abnormal cytology in Rwanda

“…While HPV persistence is a strong predictor of HSIL and the development of cervical cancer, LSIL may instead be associated with other clinical conditions. LSIL has been associated with current chlamydia infection , trichomoniasis and bacterial vaginosis . As the number of cases of individual STIs and RTIs was low, we did not attempt to stratify individual RTIs and STIs in the binary logistic regression analysis.…”

Multinucleation during C. trachomatis Infections Is Caused by the Contribution of Two Effector Pathways

“…C. trachomatis infections have been epidemiologically linked to cervical cancer in a number of studies [4], [5], [30]–[42]. Centrosome amplification and genomic instability are both linked to cancer progression and tumor severity in a number of different human cancers [14], [15], [43].…”