Recovery of Chlamydia trachomatis from patients of southeastern venereal disease clinic.

The authors determined the incidences of Chlamydia trachomatis colonization obtained by use of two methods of isolation in 169 specimens from individuals attending a venereal disease clinic. Speciments were collected in phosphate sucrose buffer and planted simultaneously onto McCoy cells previously treated with 5-iodo-2-deoxyuridine (IUDR) and with cycloheximide. As controls, specimens were obtained from 76 hospital employees or medical students without clinical signs of infection and cultured in a similar manner. Qualitatively, recoveries of Chlamydia trachomatis inclusions from the differently treated cells were the same, but the number of inclusions per ml was greater for the cycloheximide-treated cells. Recoveries of Chlamydia trachomatis from the venereal disease clinic population were 33% for those patients who also had simultaneous culture positive for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and 42% for those with nongonococcal urethritis. The recovery of Chlamydia trachomatis from the control group was 5%.