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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2001, p. 2508-2512, Vol. 39, No. 7
Direction Régionale de la Santé
Publique de Québec,1 Groupe de
Recherche en Épidémiologie de l'Université
Laval, Centre de Recherche,2 and
Departments of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology,3
Microbiology,4 and
Pathology,5 Hôpital du
St-Sacrement du Centre Hospitalier Affilié Universitaire de
Québec, Québec, Canada
Received 20 November 2000/Returned for modification 22 February
2001/Accepted 2 May 2001
A modified sanitary napkin was compared with endocervical swab and
urine specimens for the detection of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infection. Endocervical swabs and/or first-catch
urine were collected from 510 women at medical or community settings in
Quebec City. Participants were also asked to wear a modified sanitary
napkin (Ezy-Detek) during 4 consecutive hours and to bring it back to
the clinic or mail it to the laboratory. Endocervical and urine
specimens were tested using the Cobas Amplicor CT/NG assay (Roche
Diagnostic Systems) according to the manufacturer's instructions, as
were specimens collected with the napkin after adequate preparation. If
the PCR test result was positive on the endocervical sample or on any
two samples, a woman was considered to be infected. PCR testing results
on paired samples were identical for 493 (96.6%) of 510 women.
According to the definition given above, 58 (11.3%; 95% confidence
interval [CI], 8.7 to 14.5%) women were infected with C. trachomatis. The sensitivity and specificity of PCR testing on
modified sanitary napkin specimens were, respectively, 93.1% (54 of
58; 95% CI, 83.3 to 98.1%) and 98.9% (447 of 452; 95% CI, 97.4 to
99.6%) compared to 81.0% (47 of 58; 95% CI, 68.6 to 90.1%) and
100% (451 of 451; 95% CI, 99.2 to 100%) for urine specimens. The
positive and negative predictive values were, respectively, 91.5% (54 of 59) and 99.1% (447 of 451) for the sanitary napkin specimens
compared to 100% (47 of 47) and 97.6% (451 of 462) for urine samples.
These results suggest that a modified sanitary napkin represents an
effective noninvasive device for self-collection of specimens to detect
urogenital C. trachomatis infection.
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.7.2508-2512.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Evaluation of a Modified Sanitary Napkin as a
Sample Self-Collection Device for the Detection of Genital
Chlamydial Infection in Women
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Centre de
Recherche, Hôpital du Saint-Sacrement du CHA, 1050, chemin
Ste-Foy, Québec (Qc), Canada G1S 4L8. Phone: (418) 682-7387. Fax:
(418) 682-7949. E-mail: michel.alary{at}gre.ulaval.ca.
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