PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Piperaki, Evangelia-Theophano AU - Theodora, Marianna AU - Mendris, Michael AU - Barbitsa, Louisa AU - Pitiriga, Vassiliki AU - Antsaklis, Aris AU - Tsakris, Athanassios TI - Prevalence of <em>Trichomonas vaginalis</em> infection in women attending a major gynaecological hospital in Greece: a cross-sectional study AID - 10.1136/jcp.2009.070920 DP - 2010 Mar 01 TA - Journal of Clinical Pathology PG - 249--253 VI - 63 IP - 3 4099 - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/63/3/249.short 4100 - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/63/3/249.full SO - J Clin Pathol2010 Mar 01; 63 AB - Background The prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis is not accurately estimated, since it is not a reportable disease.Aims To assess the prevalence of T vaginalis infection in women attending a Greek gynaecological hospital and to evaluate four diagnostic methods for T vaginalis infection.Methods 255 symptomatic and 247 asymptomatic women were included in the study during 2006–07; 372 were Greek and 130 were immigrants. T vaginalis was detected in vaginal samples, using wet mount, culture in modified Diamond's medium, antigen detection and two PCR assays, targeting different regions of T vaginalis genome. Specimens were considered positive for T vaginalis, when tested positive either by culture or by both PCRs.Results 23 women (4.6%) were positive for T vaginalis. Seven of the 23 positive samples (30.4%) were only PCR-positive. Infection was more prevalent in symptomatic women (6.7%) than in asymptomatic ones (2.4%). T vaginalis was more frequently detected in immigrants (7.9%) than in Greek women (3.3%). Gardnerella vaginalis infection was significantly more frequent in women infected with T vaginalis. PCR was the most sensitive method (100%), followed by culture (69.6%), wet mount (69.6%) and latex agglutination (54.6%). Agreement between PCR and culture as well as wet mount examination was very good (κ=0.79).Conclusions The study shows a relatively low percentage of trichomoniasis in the female population living in Athens. The infection was more prevalent among immigrants, and a proportion of the infected women was asymptomatic. The tested methods had good agreement and PCR was found to improve the diagnostic yield considerably.