Chlamydia Trachomatis Infection in Women with and without Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare the frequency of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and in women without cervical pathology. In a study group of 423 patients with histologically proven CIN and in 108 controls with normal cervical smear, cytological material for direct immunofluorescence analysis was obtained. Among 423 patients, 24 (5.7%) had CIN 1, 108 (25.5%) CIN 2 and 291 (68.8%) CIN 3. Among all patients with CIN, 27 (6.4%) were C. trachomatis positive and 396 (93.6%) C. trachomatis negative. In the control group 6 (5.6%) were C. trachomatis positive and 102 (94.4%) C. trachomatis negative. The difference between C. trachomatis infection incidence in patients with CIN and in women without cervical pathology was not significant (chi2=0.29; P>0.05). In this study, no difference in C. trachomatis infection incidence was detected between patients with CIN and women with normal cervical smears. The impact of C. trachomatis infection seems not to interfere with the development or even the promotion of CIN.

Chlamydia trachomatis among women with normal and abnormal cervical smears in Lagos, Nigeria

“…A similar study done in Brazil 36 also showed a significantly high prevalence of C. trachomatis among women with histologically diagnosed precancerous lesion of the cervix. However, a study in Slovenia 33 and Netherlands 34 did not find any significant association. The similarities observed in our study and that of the Argentina and Brazil studies may be due to the relatively high prevalence of sexually transmitted infection often reported in developing countries as opposed to the developed countries.…”

“…The role of Chlamydia trachomatis in the pathogenesis of CIN remains unexplained and sometimes controversial; while some studies show no significant association between C. trachomatis and cytologically or histologically diagnosed precancerous lesion of the cervix, 33,34 others have shown a significant association. 35,36 In this study, a higher prevalence of C. trachomatis (50%) was reported among women with abnormal smear compared to women with normal cytology (16.7%) and this difference was statistically significant (OR = 10.95; P = 0.001).…”

Inflammatory events as detected in cervical smears and squamous intraepithelial lesions

“…31,32 However, in an older study dating from 1999, it was concluded that Chlamydia trachomatis seems not to interfere with the development of CIN. 33 In an article published in 2008, no statistical effect of Chlamydia trachomatis infection was reported of progression, regression, and persistence of CIN. 34 This study provides an oversight of HSIL and the full range of cervical infections as detected by cytology.…”

Chlamydial infection in female lower genital tract and its correlation with cervical smear abnormalities

“…It has been shown that CT infection is more frequent in females with CIN than in females with normal cytological fi ndings (5). However, Takac et al (6) indicate that CT infection is not related to the development or even to promotion of CIN. CT infections can cause several complications such as pelvic infl ammatory disease (PID) and infertility (7,2).…”