Background The three most frequent causes of vaginitis are bacterial vaginosis (BV), vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) and Trichomoniasis (TV). Within women presenting with symptoms of vaginitis, the concomitant detection of two or more pathogens is common; however, little is known about the biology of pathogen interactions during co-infections. Using a NAAT that allows simultaneous detection of organisms associated with BV, VVC and TV, we sought to characterize BV marker combinations in the absence and presence of BV and/or TV co-infections.

Methods The BD MAX™ Vaginal Panel is a sample to answer NAAT capable of simultaneous detection of G vaginalis, A. vaginae, BVAB-2/Megaspheara-1, L. crispatus/L. jensenii, C. albicans/parapsilosis/tropicalis, C. glabrata, C. krusei and T. vaginalis. The data obtained from BD MAX Vaginal Panel runs conducted on 1,740 clinician-collected specimens taken from symptomatic patients was analyzed to determine if any detection patterns emerged. The distribution of BV marker combinations detected in the absence and presence of BV and/or TV were compared.

Results Independent of the BV result (BV+ or BV−), the proportions of samples containing no BV markers and samples containing all BV markers were different in TV− and TV+ samples. TV+/BV− samples displayed a significantly higher number of cases in which only A. vaginae was detected or a combination of A. vaginae and G. vaginalis than in samples found TV−/BV−, TV−/BV+ or TV+/BV+.

Conclusion The BV marker detection patterns vary with the presence of co-infection by TV. The results obtained in this analysis suggest some interplay between BV and TV and warrants further investigation.

Disclosure No significant relationships.