Original researchPredicting chlamydial and gonococcal cervical infection: implications for management of cervicitis☆
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Electronic client records for new problem visits from 1995 through 1999 to the Public Health, Seattle and King County STD Clinic at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle were analyzed. The analysis of the data presented in this article was approved by the University of Washington Human Subjects Review Committee. Follow-up visits were excluded, as were those from women who did not undergo pelvic examination. Demographic data were collected at clinic registration; other information (patient
Results
Records for 11,014 visits by women to the clinic during the study period were reviewed. Of these, 6230 new problem visits by women who underwent pelvic examination, did not have signs of pelvic inflammatory disease, and were tested for C trachomatis and N gonorrhoeae were included in the analysis. Subjects’ age distribution, race, sexual history, and cervical findings are displayed in Table 1. Of these 6230 women, 430 (6.9%) had C trachomatis and 133 (2.1%) had N gonorrhoeae detected by
Discussion
Our analysis of a large number of women universally tested for endocervical infection with C trachomatis and N gonorrhoeae by culture yielded several clinically important findings. First, the data indicate that signs of cervicitis should be interpreted in the context of age. Cervical signs suggesting chlamydial or gonococcal infection had higher PPV in younger women. Approximately one in three women less than 25 years old with any cervical finding had infection with one or both of these
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This study was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grant R29-AI41153-04 (JMM).