Age and sex correlation of Chlamydia trachomatis infections evaluated by the culture technique and by an enzyme immunosorbent assay, IDEIA.

A total number of 1358 patients were examined for genital infections with Chlamydia trachomatis. 252 urethral smears from men and 1106 cervical smears from women were obtained. The average age of infected patients was 24.8 years (females 24.1, males 27.7). The overall prevalence was 10.6% (females 10.0%, males 13.1%). At the age below 20 years, the prevalence was 21% for both women and men, and 25% when data were restricted to patients consulting general practitioners. Above that age the overall prevalence was lower in all age intervals, and higher among males than females. All samples were tested by the tissue-culture technique, and the results were confirmed by the IDEIA (Boots-Celltech) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit (EIA) for detection of C. trachomatis. The original smear was used for both culture and EIA. The EIA test was evaluated to have a sensitivity of 90.8% and a specificity of 95.4% when using a cut-off level of 0.05 mean extinction values (MEV), as described by the manufacturer.