COMPARATIVE STUDY TO CHECK THE EFFICACY OF pH STRIP & pH GLOVES FOR DETECTION OF BACTERIAL VAGINOSIS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objectives: Comparative study to check the efficacy of pH Strip & pH Gloves for Detection of Bacterial Vaginosis in a Tertiary Care Hospital.Methods: It was a duly approved, cross-sectional study in which 50 subjects were enrolled from Tertiary care hospital, New Delhi, India. Written informed consent was obtained from all women. Vaginal swabs were collected for vaginal pH measurement. Vaginal pH was evaluated immediately with the pH strips and vaginal pH glove simultaneously.Results: The study was done on to check the efficacy of pH strip & pH gloves in pregnant as well as non-pregnant women by regularly visiting the tertiary care hospital. Among 50 subjects 8(16%) were Pregnant and 42(84%) were Non-pregnant. The mean age of the patients included in the study was found to be 26.1±19.5 years. After a Gram stain and microscopic examination of samples obtained from 50 women, those with intermediate flora and Candida infection were excluded and the final analysis was done on 40 samples. Among 40, 15 were diagnosed with BV and 25 had normal vaginal flora based on Nugents' score.Conclusions: Our findings show that vaginal pH determination is relatively sensitive, but less specific in detecting women with BV. Both pH glove and pH strip are equally suitable for screening women with BV on an outpatient basis. Further studies are required to explore the possibility of self-evaluation of vaginal pH with pH glove at community level.Â