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BMC Infectious Diseases
Published in: BMC Infectious Diseases 1/2012

Open Access 01-12-2012 | Research article

Frequency of Chlamydia trachomatis in Ureaplasma-positive healthy women attending their first prenatal visit in a community hospital in Sapporo, Japan

Authors: Tomohiro Yamazaki, Megumi Matsumoto, Junji Matsuo, Kiyotaka Abe, Kunihiro Minami, Hiroyuki Yamaguchi

Published in: BMC Infectious Diseases | Issue 1/2012

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Abstract

Background

Although Chlamydia trachomatis is the most commonly reported pathogen that causes urogenital infection such as urethritis or cervicitis, Ureaplasma parvum and Ureaplasma urealyticum, which are commensals in the genital tract, have also now been recognized as contributors to urogenital infection. However, whether the presence of either U. parvum or U. urealyticum is related to that of C. trachomatis in the urogenital tract remains unknown. We therefore attempted to estimate by PCR the prevalence of C. trachomatis, U. parvum and U. urealyticum in endocervical samples obtained from healthy women attending their first prenatal visit in Sapporo, Japan.

Methods

The samples were taken from 303 apparently healthy women, and the extracted DNAs (n = 280) were used for PCR detection targeting C. trachomatis, U. parvum and U. urealyticum. Statistical analysis of the data was performed by Fisher's exact test.

Results

PCR detection revealed that the prevalence of C. trachomatis, U. parvum and U. urealyticum was 14.3% (40/280), 41.7% (117/280) and 8.9% (25/280), respectively. C. trachomatis ompA genotype D was most frequently identified. Surprisingly, either C. trachomatis or Ureaplasma spp. was detected in almost half of the healthy women. Mixed infection of C. trachomatis with either U. parvum or U. urealyticum was also observed in 9.2% (26/280) of the women. There was a significant association between C. trachomatis and either U. parvum (p = 0.023) or Ureaplasma total (p = 0.013), but not U. urealyticum (p = 0.275).

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that the presence of Ureaplasma had a significant effect on the presence of C. trachomatis in the genital tract of healthy women, suggesting that mixed infection is an important factor in bacterial pathogenesis in the genital tract.
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Metadata
Title
Frequency of Chlamydia trachomatis in Ureaplasma-positive healthy women attending their first prenatal visit in a community hospital in Sapporo, Japan
Authors
Tomohiro Yamazaki
Megumi Matsumoto
Junji Matsuo
Kiyotaka Abe
Kunihiro Minami
Hiroyuki Yamaguchi
Publication date
01-12-2012
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Infectious Diseases / Issue 1/2012
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2334
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-12-82

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WHO estimates that half of all patients worldwide are non-adherent to their prescribed medication. The consequences of poor adherence can be catastrophic, on both the individual and population level.

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