Cytolytic vaginosis: examination of 2947 vaginal smears

The aim of this study is to detect the rate of cytolytic vaginosis (CV) cases in patients with symptoms resembling those ones of candida vaginitis and to distinguish them from candidiasis cases by examining of 2947 Papanicolaou-stained vaginal smears. Fifty four of 2947 patients (1.83%) were diagnosed as having CV based on cytologic criteria such as naked nuclei of intermediate cells (IC), the overgrowth of lactobacilli, cytoplasmic fragmentations due to lysis of the cells. None of these smears contained candidal blastospores and hyphae and polymorphonuclear leucocytes. The pH was 3.5 to 5.5 and the clinical symptoms were profuse vaginal discharge (VD) especially whitish-cheesy vaginal discharge and other symptoms of vaginal candidiasis. The study indicated that special attention has to be paid during evaluation the vaginal smears of the patients with presumed vaginal candidiasis in order to prevent an erroneous diagnosis of CV.