A study of bacterial vaginosis in HUSM towards a standard diagnostic method

The diagnosis of Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) is commonly established by using the Amsel's criteria, which is based ma1nly on clinical presentation. However. BV was often under diagnosed when the clinical criteria are used because of Its inherent subjectivity. A more objective method like the Nugent's criteria is more reliable especially In asymptomatic patients. This study is performed to study the prevalence of BV among pregnant women in HUSM and to evaluate its accuracy comparing to the standard Amsel's criteria. Methodology: A cross sectional study was randomly conducted among pregnant women, attending Obstetric and Gynaecology Clinic in HUSM for six months duration. The prevalence of BV was determined by the Amsel's and Nugent's criteria. The agreement of the two criteria was observed and the validity of the Nugent's criteria was evaluated using the Amsel's criteria a.s gold standard. Res ults: 270 patients were recruited into the study. The prevalence of bacterial vaginosis us1ng the Amsel's criteria was 1.0 % (95°.4 Cl) and 2.6% (95% Ct) by Nugent's critena The sensitivity, specificity. positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the Nugent's criteria, using the Amsel's criteria as gold standard was 100%, 96.5%, 42.9% and 100%. respectively, with moderate agreement between the two criteria (11.=0.594 and p=