Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Volume 2006 (2006), Article ID 30184, 5 pages
doi:10.1155/IDOG/2006/30184
Clinical Study

Mycoplasma Genitalium Among Women With Nongonococcal, Nonchlamydial Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

Catherine L. Haggerty,1,2 Patricia A. Totten,3 Sabina G. Astete,3 and Roberta B. Ness1

1University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15260, PA, USA
2Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, 130 DeSoto Street, 516B Parran Hall Pittsburgh, 15261, PA, USA
3Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Received 2 February 2006; Accepted 20 February 2006

Copyright © 2006 Catherine L. Haggerty et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a frequent condition of young women, often resulting in reproductive morbidity. Although Neisseria gonorrhoeae and/or Chlamydia trachomatis are/is recovered from approximately a third to a half of women with PID, the etiologic agent is often unidentified. We need PCR to test for M genitalium among a pilot sample of 50 women with nongonococcal, nonchlamydial endometritis enrolled in the PID evaluation and clinical health (PEACH) study. All participants had pelvic pain, pelvic organ tenderness, and leukorrhea, mucopurulent cervicitis, or untreated cervicitis. Endometritis was defined as ≥5 surface epithelium neutrophils per ×400 field absent of menstrual endometrium and/or ≥2 stromal plasma cells per ×120 field. We detected M genitalium in 7 (14%) of the women tested: 6 (12%) in cervical specimens and 4 (8%) in endometrial specimens. We conclude that M genitalium is prevalent in the endometrium of women with nongonococcal, nonchlamydial PID.