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Chlamydial antibodies and deoxyribonucleic acid in patients with ectopic pregnancy
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Lund, Malmö General Hospital, Sweden.
Objective:
To evaluate the importance of previous and persisting chlamydial infection for ectopic pregnancy (EP).
Design:
A prospective study of women with EP.
Setting:
Hospitalized patients.
Patients And Controls:
Eighty-six women with EP with (group I; n = 35) or without (group II; n = 51) risk factors for EP and chlamydial infection. Age-matched normally pregnant women served as controls.
Interventions:
Blood samples were drawn from patients and controls for antibody determination.
Main Outcome Measures:
The frequency of immunoglobulin G antibodies was compared between patients and controls, and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect chlamydial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in tubal tissue from 33 patients (70 specimens).
Results:
Immunoglobulin G antibodies (titer greater than or equal to 32) were significantly more common among patients than in controls (51% versus 31%, P less than 0.025). The difference was more pronounced between group I and controls (69% versus 31%, P less than 0.005). Chlamydial DNA was not detected in any tubal specimen.
Conclusions:
An association was found between previous chlamydial infection (serologically) and EP, especially in women with risk factors, but no evidence of persisting chlamydial infection in the tubes could be demonstrated using PCR.