International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology ISSN 2326-7234 Vol. 3 (5), pp. 100-107, July, 2015. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Screening for Chlamydia trachomatis infection among the infertile women

Remah M Kamel, PhD, MRCOG, FICS

Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jazan, Saudi Arabia. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 21 July, 2015

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis infection is a worldwide distributed sexually-transmitted infection that may lead to infertility. This study aims to report the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among infertile women in Saudi Arabia. A community-based study, carried out at obstetrics and gynaecology clinic at Jazan General Hospital, Saudi Arabia. The study-group included 640 infertile women who aged between 18 and 40 years-old and attended the gynaecology clinic for infertility work-up throughout the one year of the study. The control-group include a randomized 100 fertile women who attended the obstetric clinic for routine antenatal-care. All recruited women were screened for Chlamydiainfection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELIZA) for detection of serum specific antibodies and then re-tested by McCoy cell culture technique. The prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among infertile women was high, 15.0%. The rate of chlamydia infection detected by ELIZA was 9.84% while it was 12.03% by the culture method (p = 0.2443). The high prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among infertile women demands a national screening programme for early detection. ELIZA is a simple alternative screening test to the culture method.

Key words: Chlamydia trachomatis, ELIZA, McCoy cell culture, infertility.