Abstract
Objective: Investigation of the clinical significance of Ureaplasma urealyticum and its biovars in the development of postpartum endometritis. Study design: Cervical swabs were cultured for U. urealyticum in women presenting endometritis. The positive U. urealyticum cultures (>105 cfu/ml) (study group) were compared with those from women without endometritis (control
group). Anti-Ureaplasma antibodies were measured and U. urealyticum biovars were determined by polymerase chain reaction. Results: There was no difference between the prevalence of U. urealyticum in the cervical swabs of both groups, however, the number of cfu per culture, showed
a significant difference between study and control groups. Out of the culture positive
endometritis patients 39% (26/67) had >105 cfu/ml compared to 17% of control patients (5/30) P=0.03. No significant disparity between both the groups was found in the prevalence
of the parvo biovar (77% versus 71.5%, respectively). The difference in anti-Ureaplasma antibodies reached no statistical significance (30% versus 18% in study and control
groups, respectively). Conclusions: The significant difference in U. urealyticum culture cfu between both groups suggests that U. urealyticum may play a role in the etiology of this infection. This involvement is dependent
not only on the presence or absence of U. urealyticum in the culture, but on its colonization rate in the cervix (>105 cfu/ml).
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
November 28,
2002
Received in revised form:
October 18,
2002
Received:
February 18,
2002
Identification
Copyright
© 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
