Mycoplasma hominis infections in female genital tract & use of immunofluorescence for antibody detection.

A total of 325 women with genital tract infection and 108 healthy controls were screened for the presence of mycoplasmas. Of these, 325 patients, mycoplasmas were recovered in 186. Thirty five isolates were M. hominis and 151 isolates of Ureaplasma urealyticum. The fluorescent-antibody technique (FAT) has been employed for the rapid identification of mycoplasma colonies growing on agar plates. The method was found to be rapid for detection of M. hominis growing on primary isolation plates. The antibody titre of patient's serum was also detected by FAT. Patients' sera were diluted four fold from 1:4 to 1:256 dilutions. In 7 patients fluorescence was seen with 1:16 serum dilution, in 18 with 1:64 dilution and in 3 with 1:256. The immunofluorescence test gave a sensitivity of 96.66 per cent, specificity of 95.0 per cent, with percentage of false negativity and false positivity being 3.45 and 5.0 per cent respectively.