ABSTRACT

Trichomonas vaginalis (T. vaginalis) is a protozoon that is sexually transmitted and causes urogenital system infections. It is known that 5 million people are infected and 170 million people are under risk of infection with this protozoon each year throughout the world. Although trichomoniasis is usually asymptomatic, in symptomatic cases it causes vaginitis in women and uretritis in men. In this study, samples from 220 patients who presented at the gynecology policlinics of the Adnan Menderes University Medical Faculty and Aydin State Hospital in 2003 with complaints of vaginal discharge were examined by wet mount preparations and TYM (trypticase-yeast extract-maltose) cultivation methods. In 12 (5.45%) of these 220 samples T. vaginalis was detected by both saline wet mount preparations and the TYM culture method. Sixteen (7.27%) out of all the patients were found to be positive by TYM cultivation. Although culture is the most sensitive method for diagnosis of trichomoniasis, in our country wet mount preparations are usually performed for diagnosis of trichomoniasis and cultures are only performed in some laboratories. In our study, it was determined that the culture method is more sensitive than wet mount preparations and we emphasized that the culture method is essential in routine diagnosis.

Keywords: Trichomonas vaginalis, culture, vaginal discharge, Aydin