[Nonspecific vaginitis and Gardnerella vaginalis: methodological and epidemiological notes on 328 cases]

328 samples of vaginal discharges in adult fertile women, aged between 16 and 48, were examined in this trial. After excluding 95 women (39 were affected by vaginal Trichomoniasis, 55 whose discharge presented yeasts and 1 affected by gonococcal infection), the authors divided the remaining 233 cases into subjects affected or not affected by nonspecific vaginitis (NSV) only using a Gram-stained smear. In the 83 patients affected by NSV, the authors isolated Gardnerella vaginalis in the 90.4% of the cases. After statistically correlating the different parameters described in literature as associated to NSV (pH, KOH-test, Clue Cells, isolation of G. vaginalis, symptoms), the authors concluded that: a) Gram-stained smear may be used as a simple microscopical test for diagnosis, in most of the cases, NSV; b) in most of the cases of NSV are implicated more organisms (essentially G. vaginalis and anaerobic organisms); c) G. vaginalis can be considered as a marker of these infections.