Characterization of aerobic vaginitis in late pregnancy in a Chinese population: A STROBE-compliant study

This study aimed to analyze the clinical characteristics, responsible pathogens, and antibiotic sensitivity of aerobic vaginitis (AV) infection in women in late pregnancy in western China.We enrolled 246 pregnancy with AV (≥35 weeks gestation) and 204 reproductive non-pregnancy with AV from West China between January 2019 and December 2019. Then, bacterial culture, identification and antibiotic sensitivity testing were performed. Subsequently, we retrospectively analyzed the vaginal microbiota of 250 healthy pregnant women with no AV and compared the maternal features and pregnancy outcomes.Regarding bacterial diversity, Streptococcus and Lactobacillus were highly abundant in women with AV in late pregnancy, whereas Staphylococcus spp. and other bacteria were significantly more abundant in reproductive non-pregnant women with AV. In addition, 82.5% (343/416) of the single isolate comprised Escherichia coli, group B Streptococcus, Enterococcus faecalis, and Staphylococcus aureus. Among the top 4 isolates, 13.4% (46/343) were multidrug-resistant, but all isolates were highly susceptible to nitrofurantoin. Escherichia coli was 100% susceptible to amikacin, meropenem, ertapenem, and imipenem (100%, 157/157), and gram-positive cocci were 100% (186/186) susceptible to vancomycin and linezolid. Finally, we found that pregnant women with AV had high rates of histories of vaginitis, premature rupture of membranes and neonatal infection.Our study reveals new insights into AV infection during pregnancy and highlights the different vaginal bacterial microbiome compositions between pregnant and reproductive non pregnant women with AV, these results may translate to treatments that are more cost-effective than current standard treatments.