Association of Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Mycoplasma genitalium and Ureaplasma species infection and organism load with cervicitis in north Indian population.

Cervicitis is predominantly caused by N. gonorrhoeae and C. trachomatis, which accounts for almost half of all the cases of cervicitis. The role of newer organisms like Mycoplasma genitalium and Ureaplasma spp. and association of bacterial load with cervicitis are also not well established. So the study aimed to determine the relative frequency of these organisms and their load in association with cervicitis cases from north India. A case control study involving 300 women was conducted using quantitative real time PCR from endo-cervical swabs for identification of organisms and quantification of bacterial load. Among 150 cervicitis cases, C. trachomatis, N. gonorrhoeae, M. genitalium and U. parvum were detected in 5 (3.3%), 10 (6.6%), 37(24.6%) and 47 (31.3%) respectively. Old age (<0.001, Chi-square test) and irregular menstrual cycles (<0.001, Chi-square test) were significantly associated with cervicitis. M genitalium was the only organism to be associated significantly with cervicitis with regard to age (<0.031), and symptoms like discharge (p<0.033, Chi-square test) and dysuria (p<0.044, Chi-square test), in multivariate analysis. Our finding suggests that the bacterial load of these organisms is not significantly associated with cervicitis. However, we found significant association M. genitalium infection with clinical characteristics of cervicitis cases. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.