Is analysis of vaginal secretions for volatile organic acids to detect bacterial vaginosis of any diagnostic value?

A study was undertaken to determine which fermentation products in vaginal secretions serve as the best markers for bacterial vaginosis. Three categories of markers had been previously identified, but due to cost considerations it was necessary to accurately determine if analysis for all three were necessary. With the use of vaginal secretions from well-defined patient populations, we applied gas-liquid chromatography to test for both volatile and nonvolatile acid fermentation products. It was found that only the detection of nonvolatile acids was necessary, because no additional patients with bacterial vaginosis were identified by subsequent analysis of volatile acids. Routine analysis of volatile acids to identify patients with bacterial vaginosis is labor intensive and costly and had no clinical diagnostic value.