Introduction: Most sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are curable, but inappropriate treatment can lead to serious complications. The importance of setting up STI screening programs has been highlighted in various studies, the absence of such national programs accounting for the lack of STI statistics in Romania. The purpose of our study was to evaluate multiplex PCR as a screening method for the most common 6 STIs and establish their frequency in a group of symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. We aimed to highlight STI associations and correlations between STI pathogens and symptomatology, demographic status, antecedents or sexual partners.
Methodology: A total of 249 patients, both symptomatic and asymptomatic, were included in this study. Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseia gonorrhoeae (NG), Trichomonas vaginalis (TV), Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU), Mycoplasma hominis (MH) and Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) were all identified in urine samples via multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The SPSS IBM program was employed for statistical analysis.
Results: 32.12% of the patients were found positive, some presenting multiple infections. The results are representative for the Romanian male population. 107 STI pathogens were identified, most frequent being CT, UU and NG. Several statistical correlations between patient characteristics and the presence of STIs have been demonstrated.
Conclusions: The results suggest that multiplex PCR meets all the prerequisites for a screening method, allowing the use of multiple specimens and enabling simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens in a short period of time. STI identification via multiplex PCR proved to be an effective method for quantifying their frequency in Romania.
Background and aimSexually transmitted infections are a very frequent and under-diagnosed cause of illness worldwide. A high number of detection methods and a large range of specimens in which sexually transmitted infections can be determined are available at the moment. Polymerase chain reaction performed on first void urine offers the advantage of being non-invasive, self-collectable and has high sensitivity and specificity. We looked to determine the frequency of Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Trichomonas vaginalis, Mycoplasma hominis, Mycoplasma genitalium and Ureaplasma urealyticum in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients.MethodsSix sexually transmitted infections were determined in the first void urine of 15 symptomatic and asymptomatic patients by polymerase chain reaction. We used “Epicenter MasterPure™ Complete DNA and RNA Purification Kit” for the DNA purification and “Seeplex® STD6 ACE Detection” for the DNA amplification. The results were examined in UV light.ResultsA number of 5 patients had positive results for Chlamydia trachomatis or Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Sexually transmitted infections are more frequent in men between 27 and 40 years old.ConclusionsPolymerase chain reaction is a good diagnostic tool for sexually transmitted infections because it has a high sensitivity and specificity. Chlamydia trachomatis is the most frequent sexually transmitted infection, followed by Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
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