Investigational assays for STDs found accurate: involve self-collected vaginal swabs.(Gynecology)

CHICAGO -- Investigational assays for detection of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae via self-collected vaginal swabs are equivalent in their high accuracy to nucleic acid amplification tests already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for detection of symptomatic and asymptomatic infections in women.

That finding emerged from a large, multicenter study reported by Dr. Max A. Chernesky at the annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Potential advantages for the new transcription-mediated amplification assays are twofold. Many women and their physicians may find vaginal swab specimens preferable to the standard cervical swab and first-catch urine specimens because of greater ease of specimen collection and transport.

Moreover, the new assays appear to identify "extra positives"--the small percentage of women whose genital tract infections are hOt detected using the FDA-approved urine and cervical swab tests, according to Dr. Chernesky of St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton, Ont.

The study involved a diverse population of 1,464 American and Canadian women, 814 of them symptomatic. They were tested for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae with multiple methods: the investigational Gen-Probe Aptima CT and GC assays; the Aptima Combo 2, which uses different nucleic antigen targets to detect either or both pathogens; and the FDA-approved Becton Dickinson ProbeTec assays.

Each woman collected a vaginal swab and a first-catch urine sample. Physicians also collected a vaginal swab and two cervical swabs ...