Keeping up with new technology: new approaches to diagnosis of Chlamydia infection

Chlamydia trachomatis infections are among the most common sexually transmitted infections in the US today. One of the keys to the prevention of C. trachomatis infection rests on the ability to make this diagnosis on the basis of accurate laboratory testing. For many years the standard for diagnosis of C. trachomatis infections has been isolation in tissue culture. Numerous nonculture methods, including enzyme immunoassay, have been used as an alternative to cell culture. The performance characteristics of these tests have all been compared with a standard, cell culture, which at best will detect 90% of positive specimens. Nucleic acid amplification techniques, including PCR and ligase chain reaction, have been recently introduced. The advantage of these tests is their ability to detect 10-20% more positive specimens when compared with culture or confirmed nonculture methods performed with a single specimen. The sensitivity of amplified tests also allows us to test specimens from multiple sites (endocervix, urethra, urine), which expands our standard from an infected sample to detection of an infected patient. Tests based on amplified nucleic acid technology have greatly improved our ability to diagnose urogenital C. trachomatis infection. The use of an expanded standard will help us accurately define the true performance and clinical utility of nonculture Chlamydia diagnostic tests.