Effectiveness of Gonozyme for detection of gonorrhea in low-risk pregnant and gynecologic populations.

The Gonozyme Diagnostic Kit (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, IL) was evaluated in a population at low-risk for gonorrhea. Two hundred seventy-two female patients, consisting of 152 obstetrical patients and 120 gynecologic patients attending a family-planning clinic, were tested for Neisseria gonorrhoeae by use of culture and Gonozyme testing of specimens from the endocervical canal. The average ages were 16.1 years for the obstetric patients and 17.8 years for the gynecologic patients. The overall sensitivity of Gonozyme as compared with culture was 60.8% (57.1% for obstetric patients and 62.5% for gynecologic patients); the overall specificity was 98.4%. An association was observed between the number of colony-forming-units (cfu) per plate and a positive Gonozyme test; specimens with less than 60 cfu/plate usually yielded a negative Gonozyme result. We conclude that Gonozyme is a highly specific test but its low sensitivity as compared with that of culture does not allow it to replace standard culture media for screening of low-risk women for infection with N. gonorrhoeae.