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Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1979 Nov;10(5):647–649. doi: 10.1128/jcm.10.5.647-649.1979

Failure of serology in diagnosing chlamydial infections of the female genital tract.

J Schachter, L Cles, R Ray, P A Hines
PMCID: PMC273239  PMID: 397220

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis was recoved from 20% (36/180) of women attending a venereal disease clinic. All infected women had chlamydial antibodies in their serum and cervical secretions. However, the background rates of chlamydial antibody in chlamydia-negative women were very high. Measurement of antibodies in serum (complement fixation or immunoglobulin G [IgG] and IgM by microimmunofluorescence) or cervical secretion (IgG, IgM, IgA or secretory IgA classes) did not result in predictive values of greater than 32%. It is concluded that the detection of chlamydial antibodies in serum or cervical secretions cannot be substituted for agent isolation in diagnosing these infections.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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