Role of Chlamydia trachomatis in epididymitis. Part II: Clinical diagnosis

Abstract

The aim of the research was to analyse the complaints and symptoms in acute Chlamydia trachomatis (C.t.) epididymitis. The analysis of data from history and physical examination was made in dependence on detected Chlamydia infection in the group of 39 patients with the symptoms of acute epididymitis (1--12 men C.t. (+), 2--27 men C.t.(-)). Chlamydial epididymitis more commonly occurred in younger patients, and the symptoms of the disease persisted for a longer time than in the patients with epididymitis of another etiology. None of the men had suffered from nongonorrhoeal epididymitis before, while two of them (16.7 percent) had had urethritis. The difference in etiology was also reflected in the patients' complaints. The discharge from the urethra was more common in the patients with Chlamydia infection (1--58.3 percent, 2--18.5 percent) while epididymis oedema and scrotum erythema where twofold scarcer. No exact correlation between C.t. presence and leukocyte reaction intensity in urethra was noticed. The occurrence of chlamydial epididymitis is not always preceded by symptoms of urethritis and only in some cases they are accompanied by the increase of polynuclear leukocytes in urethral discharge. Chlamydial epididymitis is of milder course when compared to epididymitis of another etiology.