Systematic review of diagnostic tests for vaginal trichomoniasis

Abstract

Objective: To review critically and to summarize the evidence of diagnostic tests and culture media for the diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginitis.Methods: We performed a systematic review of literature indexed in MEDLINE of studies that used Trichomonas culture as the reference standard (9,882 patients, 35 studies). Level I studies (5,047 patients, 13 studies) fulfilled at least two of three criteria: 1) consecutive patients were evaluated prospectively, 2) decision to culture was not influenced by test results, and 3) there was independent and blind comparison to culture.Results: The sensitivity of the polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR) was 95% (95% CI 91% to 99%), and the specificity was 98% (95% CI 96% to 100%). One study was classified as Level I evidence (52 patients). The sensitivity of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was 82% (95% CI 74% to 90%), and the specificity was 73% (95% CI 35% to 100%). The sensitivity of the direct fluorescence antibody was 85% (95% CI 79% to 90%), and the specificity was 99% (95% CI 98% to 100%). Sensitivities of culture media were 95% for Diamond's, 96% for Hollander, and 95% for CPLM.Conclusions: The sensitivity and specificity of tests to diagnose trichomoniasis vary widely. Infect.

Comparison between mixed lysate antigen and α-actinin antigen in ELISA for serodiagnosis of trichomoniasis

“…Five studies which dealt with the performance of ELISAs have been reviewed; their pooled sensitivity was 82% and pooled specificity was 73% [10]. The ELISA using mixed lysate Ag in the present study demonstrated higher specificity (100%) than the pooled data, while their sensitivity was similar to that of the pooled data.…”

Antiparasitic activity of two Lavandula essential oils against Giardia duodenalis, Trichomonas vaginalis and Hexamita inflata

“…Trichomonas, the most common non-viral sexually transmitted disease, with approximately 170 million newly acquired infections of T. vaginalis worldwide annually, has been linked to sterility, pre-term delivery, low birth weight and high infant mortality and, more recently, to increased susceptibility to HIV infection (Petrin et al 1998;Patel et al 2000;Upcroft and Upcroft 2001;Schwebke and Burgess 2004;Cudmore et al 2004;Dunne et al 2003). It is responsible for 11% of all cases of non-gonoccocal urethritis as well as prostatitis, epididymitis and infertility in males (Petrin et al 1998;Cudmore et al 2004).…”

The diagnosis of trichomonas vaginalis in liquid-based Pap tests: Morphological characteristics

“…8 The conventional Papanicolaou (Pap) smear (CPS) has been shown to be ineffective in diagnosing T. vaginalis in asymptomatic women, lacking both sensitivity and specificity. 9,10 A recent meta-analysis reported a pooled sensitivity of 57% and a specificity of 97% for the diagnosis of T. vaginalis in CPS when compared with culture as a gold standard. 10 A number of older studies even stressed the lack of specificity of CPS, finding them to have more than 30% false positive results.…”