| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2006 | Volume
: 24
| Issue : 2 | Page : 97-100 |
Chlamydia trachomatis antigen detection in pregnancy and its verification by antibody blocking assay
R Malenie1, PJ Joshi2, MD Mathur1
1 Department of Microbiology, Subharati Medical College, Meerut - 250 002. UP, India
2 Department of Microbiology, MP Shah Medical College, Jamnagar - 361 001, Gujarat, India
Correspondence Address:
R Malenie
Department of Microbiology, Subharati Medical College, Meerut - 250 002. UP
India
DOI: 10.4103/0255-0857.25179 PMID: 16687858
Purpose: To detect the prevalence of genital infection caused by Chlamydia trachomatis in pregnant women and also to confirm the positive results using blocking antibody assay. Methods: Endocervical specimens were collected from 200 symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women attending the ANC OPD at M P Shah Medical College, Jamnagar. The samples were tested for presence of Chlamydia trachomatis antigen using the monoclonal antibody. Blocking antibody assay was used to further verify the positive results. Results: Out of 200 pregnant women, 38 (19%) were found positive for Chlamydia trachomatis antigen. Out of the 68 symptomatic patients, C. trachomatis antigen was detected in 26.4%. After verification of the positive samples 13.6% of the asymptomatic pregnant women were found to be harbouring the infection in their genital tract. Two (5.2%) out of the 38 positive samples, on verification with the blocking antibody assay, were found to be false positive by IDEIA,TM thus the specificity of the IDEIATM being 94.8%. In patients with previous history of abortions, 27.7% were tested positive for C. trachomatis infection. Conclusions: Significant number of pregnant women shad C. trachomatis antigen in their endocervical canal, which can be easily diagnosed by this simple enzyme immuno assay having a specificity of 94.8%. Verification of positive results by antibody blocking assay can further improve the specificity of this non-culture test. Asymptomatic patients should also be screened for the infection. History of previous abortions places the patient at a higher risk for C. trachomatis infection thus such patients should be definitely tested for chlamydia infection.
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