Study the Efficacy of Amsel’s Criteria & Nugent’s Score in Diagnosing Bacterial Vaginosis among Female Patients attending the STD Clinic

INTRODUCTION: Bacterial vaginosis is a polymicrobial syndrome characterized by replacement of normal vaginal Lactobacilli into pathogenic mycoplasms and Gram negative rods. It is the most common cause of vaginal discharge in reproductive age group. Most commonly used methods for diagnosis of BV are Amsel’s criteria and Nugent’s score. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to study the prevalence of Bacterial vaginosis and to compare the efficacy of Amsel’s criteria and Nugent’s score in diagnosing BV. METHODOLOGY: This study was conducted in Institute of Venereology, Madras Medical College, Chennai. 100 female patients attending STD op were included in the study. Subjects were evaluated for the presence of Bacterial vaginosis by Amsel’s criteria and Nugent’s score. RESULTS: In our study, the prevalence of Bacterial vaginosis by Nugent’s score was 51% and by Amsel’s criteria was 77%. Among the individual components of Amsel’s criteria, whiff test had the highest specificity and clue cells >20% had the highest sensitivity. CONCLUSION: Amsel’s criteria being a simple and inexpensive method, it can be used as a method of diagnosing Bacterial vaginosis where the laboratory facilities are inadequate. Nugent’s score requires infrastructure facilities with skilled manpower and thus it can be used as a diagnostic method in Tertiary Care Centre