RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Comparison of latex agglutination, wet preparation, and culture for the detection of <em>Trichomonas vaginalis</em>
JF Sexually Transmitted Infections
JO Sex Transm Infect
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 201
OP 203
DO 10.1136/sti.2003.007864
VO 80
IS 3
A1 Adu-Sarkodie, Y
A1 Opoku, B K
A1 Danso, K A
A1 Weiss, H A
A1 Mabey, D
YR 2004
UL http://sti.bmj.com/content/80/3/201.abstract
AB Objectives: To compare the performance of three diagnostic methods for Trichomonas vaginalis infection—latex agglutination, saline wet mount, and culture. Methods: Vaginal swabs from 3807 women attending antenatal clinics were tested for the presence of T vaginalis by latex agglutination. All positives and the following two negatives were tested by wet preparation and culture. Results: The prevalence of infection by latex agglutination was 5.4%. Using an expanded gold standard based on the wet mount and culture results, the sensitivity of the latex agglutination test was 98.8% (95% CI 95.9 to 99.9) and specificity was 92.1 (89.2 to 94.5). The kappa index for test agreement was 0.93 for latex and culture and 0.88 for latex and wet preparation. Conclusion: The latex agglutination test is a highly sensitive test for detecting T vaginalis infection. It is a simple rapid test and has the potential for use in screening and diagnostic settings.