Prevalence and the evaluation of culture, wet mount, and ELISA methods for the diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalis infection among Ghanaian women using urine and vaginal specimens

• Published in: Tropical medicine and health Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 33 - 8
• Main Authors: Adjei, Collins, Boateng, Richard, Dompreh, Albert, Okyere, Bismark, Owiredu, Eddie-Williams
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan BioMed Central 16.05.2019; BMC
• Subjects: Antigens; Culture; ELISA; Enzymes; Infections; Medical laboratories; Parasitic diseases; Patients; Population; Questionnaires; Sample size; Serology; Sexually transmitted diseases; Statistical analysis; STD; Trichomonas vaginalis; Urine; Vagina; Wet mount; Ghana; Africa; Trichomonas vaginalis; Wet mount; Culture; ELISA
• ISSN: 1349-4147; 1348-8945; 1349-4147
• DOI: 10.1186/s41182-019-0162-9

The services of most clinical laboratories in Africa regarding the diagnosis of are largely dependent on the urine direct wet-mount method. However, the exclusive use of urine-based detection may not be appropriate. The culture method is considered the "gold standard" for the diagnosis of . However, this method has a relatively longer turn-around time and is limited by non-viable organisms in the specimen. This study assessed the prevalence of and its associated risk factors and evaluated its diagnosis using urine and vaginal samples from symptomatic female out-patients by culture, direct wet-mount, and ELISA method respectively. This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of the Manhyia District hospital (MDH) and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Ghana. Ghanaian sexually active female adults between the ages of 18 and 50 years old were recruited for this study. Vaginal (HVS) and urine samples were collected from each participant, and infection was assessed based on culture, direct wet mount, and ELISA methods. The prevalence of infection based on the ELISA method, HVS culture, and HVS wet mount were 7.2%, 5.0%, and 1.7%, respectively. Urine culture presented with a 0.6% prevalence rate while urine direct wet mount detected no positive case. There was no statistically significant association between demographic and clinical characteristics and infection, except for subjects presenting with abdominal pain [OR = 5.42, 95% CI (1.35-21.73),  = 0.017]. Using HVS culture as the reference, ELISA performed best compared to the other methods assessed in this study, presenting with the highest sensitivity [88.9%, 95% CI (54.0-99.8)], specificity [97.1%, 95% CI (93.1-98.9)], AUC (93.0%), and accuracy (96.7%). The prevalence of infection is high among women in Ghana. With the exception of abdominal pain, there is no significant association between demographic and clinical characteristics and infection. In the event where the culture method is unavailable or when rapid diagnosis is required, antigenic detection using ELISA is the most accurate for the diagnosis of infection in women compared to urine wet-mount/culture and the HVS wet-mount method.