Infection with Chlamydia trachomatis, Mycoplasma hominis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in patients with acute pelvic inflammatory disease

Abstract

Of 166 women with acute pelvic inflammatory disease, Mycoplasma hominis was isolated from the cervix of 91 (54.8%), Chlamydia trachomatis was isolated from 37 (22.3%), and Neisseria gonorrhoeae was isolated from nine (5.4%). Of the 91 women from whom M. hominis was recovered, 39 developed a significant change in titer of serum antibodies to the organism within one month after admission. Of the 85 patients from whose cervix M. hominis was not isolated, 11 displayed a significant change in titer of antibody to the organism. A change in the titer of IgG antibodies to C. trachomatis was found in 20 women (54.1%) who had Chlamydia-positive cultures and in 14 (10.9%) whose cultures were negative for Chlamydia. The results of the cultural and serologic studies suggest that M. hominis was associated with pelvic inflammatory disease in approximately one-third of the patients, or in half of those women from whose cervix the organism was isolated. In approximately every fifth woman studied, C. trachomatis seemed to be associated with the pelvic inflammation.