Microbiological profile of leucorrhoea in patients attending a tertiary care hospital at Jalna

• Author Details:   
• Sufia M. Siddiqui
• Uzma Afreen
• Kotgire Santosh A.
• Karan Ostwal
• A.B. Deshmukh

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Introduction and Objective: Leucorrhoea is an abnormal white, yellow or greenish vaginal discharge associated with irritation, is non-hemorrhagic in nature and signifies some underlying pelvic pathology. It is common complaint of patients attending Obstretic and Gynaecology department. There are three main causes of vaginal discharge -1.Bacterial vaginosis (BV) 2.Vulvo-vaginal candidiasis (VVC) 3. Trichomoniasis. Symptomatic vaginal discharge needs to be evaluated to ascertain the cause so as to institute proper treatment. So the present study was undertaken to screen abnormal vaginal discharge in women to diagnose BV, VVC and Trichomoniasis.
Materials and Methods: We included 175 patients with main complaints of leucorrhoea .The study was carried out in the the Department of Microbiology, Indian Institute of Medical Science and Research Jalna, for a period of 1 year. High vaginal swabs were taken from these patients and assessed by wet mount, gram staining, Nugent’s score and culture on respective media followed by identification of candida on Hicrome agar.
Results: Majority of patients belonged to the reproductive age group (15-45years). Out of the 175 patients, 67(38.28%) patients showed normal flora in which no etiology could be elicited. Remaining 108(61.71%) patients had a definite etiological agent amongst which bacterial vaginosis was diagnosed  in 68 (38.85%)patients as per the Nugent’s Score.22(12%)  patients revealed candidiasis, and 18 patients (10%) showed Trichomonas vaginalis on wet mount examination. When further speciation of Candida were done, on Candida Hicrome agar, it was found that 13 (59.1)were C.albicans,5 (22.72%)were C glabrata,3 (13.63%)were C parapsilosis and only one strain was C krusi(4.5%).
Conclusion: Bacterial vaginosis remains the most predominant cause of leucorrhoea in sexually active women. For confirmation of clinical diagnosis, microbiological investigations have to be performed so as to improve the treatment outcome.

Keywords: Leucorrhoea, Bacterial Vaginosis, Vulvovaginal Candidiasis, Nugent’s Score