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 IDEIA
TM 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.
