PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - H Moi AU - N Reinton AU - A Moghaddam TI - <em>Mycoplasma genitalium</em> in women with lower genital tract inflammation AID - 10.1136/sti.2008.032748 DP - 2009 Feb 01 TA - Sexually Transmitted Infections PG - 10--14 VI - 85 IP - 1 4099 - http://sti.bmj.com/content/85/1/10.short 4100 - http://sti.bmj.com/content/85/1/10.full SO - Sex Transm Infect2009 Feb 01; 85 AB - Objectives: To examine the prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium in a large number of female patients attending a sexually transmitted infections (STI) clinic and to determine if there is an association with signs or symptoms of lower genital tract inflammation (LGTI).Methods: Altogether, 7646 female patients who had symptoms or microscopic signs of LGTI or were perceived to be at high risk of exposure to an STI were tested for both M genitalium and Chlamydia trachomatis. Urethral and cervical smears were examined quantitatively for polymorphic mononuclear leucocytes (PMNLs).Results: The prevalence of C trachomatis and M genitalium was 10.1% and 4.5%, respectively. We found a clear association between detecting M genitalium in first void urine (FVU) of patients and signs of urethral inflammation. The strongest association was between detecting M genitalium in FVU and number of PMNLs in urethral smears (n = 6790; OR 2.1; 95 % CI 1.5 to 2.9). The association was less significant between detecting M genitalium in cervical swabs and the number of PMNLs in urethral smears (n = 6785; OR 1.4; 95% CI 1.1 to 1.9), although cervical swabs gave higher sensitivity than FVU in detecting M genitalium (86% vs 62%). C trachomatis detection in FVU and cervical swabs was highly concordant and both significantly associated with urethritis (n = 6790; OR 3.6; 95% CI 3.0 to 4.4).Conclusions: This data support the hypothesis that M genitalium causes urethritis in women and that M genitalium infection of the genitourinary tract leads to different clinical manifestations depending on whether the site of infection is the urethral or the cervical epithelium.