Follicular conjunctivitis caused by Chlamydia trachomatis: frequency and diagnosis test

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis is the principal infectious cause of blindness in the world, which begins as follicular conjunctivitis. In Peru few studies was realized by its difficulty to diagnose. A study was conducted in 55 patients 18 to 68 years with follicular conjunctivitis treated at the Instituto Nacional de Oftalmología (Lima, Peru) during the years 2005 and 2006, with the objective of determining the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and evaluated the usefulness of Giemsa and direct immunofluorescence (DIF) for the diagnosis of C. trachomatis in relation to cell culture. The frequency of C. trachomatis in samples of eyes secretions was 13% (7/55) for cell culture, 20% (11/55) for DIF and 9% (5/55) for Giemsa; the signs and symptoms more frequents were the presence of secretions and photophobia. All cases were males and reported not having had prior sexually transmitted infections. We found a sensitivity of 42,9 and 85,7%, and a specificity of 98,8 and 89,6% for Giemsa and DIF respectively.