Isolation of Chlamydia trachomatis from the urethra and from prostatic fluid in men with signs and symptoms of acute urethritis.

Chlamydia trachomatis was isolated from the urethra in 71 of 275 men primarily attending the outpatient clinic of the Department of Urology because of symptoms of acute urethritis, and with more than four polymorphonuclear leukocytes in each of at least five fields of the swabbed urethral exudate (x1000). C. trachomatis was isolated from 34 of 48 men below 26 years of age, while only 37 of the 227 men aged 26 years or older harboured chlamydial infection. C. trachomatis was isolated from the prostatic secretion of 26 men with acute urethritis and more than 20 polymorphonuclear leukocytes in 10 or more random fields (x450) in the stripped prostatic fluid, suggesting a positive correlation between chlamydial infection and sub-acute silent prostatitis. Among 70 men with C. trachomatis isolated from the urethra, the organism had disappeared at re-examination within 10 days in 19 (27%). Such a disappearance was found in only one of 26 men (4%) in whom C. trachomatis had been isolated not only from the urethra but also from stripped prostatic fluid. Four weeks after two treatment cycles of lymecycline 300 mg twice daily for 7 days with an interval of 10 days, C. trachomatis was but isolated in any urethral specimen, nor from the expressed prostatic fluid.