A study to evaluate Chlamydia screening in colposcopy clinics

A preliminary study of 329 colposcopy patients was conducted to investigate the prevalence of endocervical chlamydial infection using the VIDAS Chlamydia Enzyme Immune Assay (EIA) and Chlamydia Immune Fluorescent Antigen (IFA) collection kits. The overall antigen positive rates of five of the 329 (1.5%) in the study group compared exactly with the four out of the 260 (1.5%) in the gynaecological outpatient controls. Women in the age group 16-20 years had the highest Chlamydia detection rates (7%) followed by those aged 21-30 years (2.3%). Four of the 119 (3.4%) single women in the study group were Chlamydia antigen positive compared with one of the 210 (0.5%) married women (P < 0.005). Among the controls, three of the 65 (4.6%) single and one of the 195 (0.5%) married women were positive. In both the study and control populations, Chlamydia antigen was more prevalent among younger women and non-contraceptive users. Routine screening in colposcopy patients may not be cost effective, but a policy of selective screening in young single women aged 20 years or less should be considered. Larger sample studies using the more specific and sensitive DNA amplification techniques would have probably yielded higher detection rates and are recommended.