TABLE 1.

Physicochemical characteristics of the tampons and their effects on S. aureus growth and TSST-1 production^a

Product	Composition	Mean tampon absorbency (ml) ± SD	S. aureus		TSST-1
			Mean bacterial count (CFU/ml) ± SD	P value	Mean concn (ng/ml) ± SD	P value
Medium alone (positive control)			2.5 × 109 ± 0.2 × 109		73.9 ± 8.5
Tampons
Tampax compak
Regular	Cotton and rayon	26.2 ± 1.2	3.2 × 107 ± 2 × 107	<0.001	0.1 ± 0	<0.001
Super plus	Cotton and rayon	40.6 ± 0.3	7.9 × 106 ± 3 × 106	<0.001	1.4 ± 0.3	<0.001
Natracare
Regular	Cotton	28.2 ± 1.2	8.2 × 108 ± 3 × 108	<0.001	17.9 ± 3.1	<0.001
Super plus	Cotton	36.1 ± 1.1	7.4 × 108 ± 5 × 108	<0.001	70.5 ± 7.5	NS
Nett Procomfort
Nuit super	Viscose	25.3 ± 0.3	1.7 × 108 ± 0.7 × 108	<0.001	1.3 ± 0.7	<0.001
Normal	Viscose	21.9 ± 0.2	1.9 × 108 ± 1 × 108	<0.001	0.7 ± 0.2	<0.001
Super plus	Viscose	34.4 ± 0.5	1.0 × 108 ± 0.4 × 108	<0.001	0.7 ± 0.2	<0.001
o.b. ProComfort
Light days	Cotton and viscose	18.1 ± 1.2	2.1 × 108 ± 0.6 × 108	<0.001	0.8 ± 0.1	<0.001
Super	Cotton and viscose	30.5 ± 1.5	1.1 × 108 ± 0.6 × 108	<0.001	2.1 ± 1.0	<0.001
Normal	Cotton and viscose	25.2 ± 1.2	3.2 × 108 ± 1 × 108	<0.001	2.5 ± 1.3	<0.001
Super plus	Cotton and viscose	35.7 ± 0.5	1.1 × 108 ± 0.6 × 108	<0.001	1.8 ± 0.8	<0.001

^aValues are means ± standard deviations (n = 3 to 8). Student's t tests were used to compare bacterial CFU and TSST-1 concentrations in the presence of tampons to the values for the control. NS, not significant.