Evidence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in gynaecological patients.

Direct microscopic examination of cervical smears taken from gynaecological patients and stained by Giemsa and Gimenez revealed the presence of chlamydial inclusions in 2 and elementary bodies in 6 out of 40 samples tested. Attempts of demonstration of chlamydiae from cervical smears of further patients in chick embryo yolk sacs and cycloheximide-treated McCoy cells using the centrifugation of infectious inocula succeeded in 4 and 9 cases of 71 patients examined, respectively. One isolated strain behaved as Chlamydia trachomatis based on its sensitivity to sulfadiazine, absence of killing the intraperitoneally inoculated mice, demonstration of its inclusions by iodine staining and by detection of its elementary bodies by immunofluorescence technique using mouse serum directed to C. trachomatis but not C. psittaci serotypes. At the same time, 11 of 68 patient sera tested by microimmunofluorescence test contained IgG antibodies to genitourinary serotypes of C. trachomatis, suggesting the previous contact of patients with sexually-transmitted chlamydiae. The results obtained indicate that chlamydiae may pose a public health problem in women of sexually active age also in Czechoslovakia.