An overview of infectious agents of salpingitis, their biology, and recent advances in methods of detection

Abstract

It was only in the decade of the 1970s that more extensive research into the etiology of acute salpingitis (pelvic inflammatory disease) was performed. Recently the development of new laboratory diagnostic methods and the detection and taxonomic differentiation of new organisms such as strictly anerobic bacteria chlamydiae and microplasms have contributed to an understanding of the etiology of acute salpingitis (AS). In this discussion AS and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) are used synonymously. In reviewing infectious agents of salpingitis their biology and recent advances in methods of detection attention is directed to the following: 1) nontuberculous salpingitis (Neisseria gonorrhea anerobic infections mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum Chlamydia trachomatis Chlamydial perihepatitis in acute salpingitis and miscellaneous and uncommon etiologic agents); 2) tuberculous salpingitis; 3) obtaining specimens in AS (lower genital tract uterine cavity and cul-de-sac and fallopian tubes); and 4) recent advances in laboratory diagnostic methods (tests for tubal isoamylases Neisseria gonorrhea anerobic bacteria mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum Chlamydia trachomatis and mycobacteria. A common condition AS is on the increase in many countries as exemplified by studies from Lund Sweden. This increase in the incidence of PID appears to be associated with the pandemic situation of gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases that has prevailed over the last 20 years. Most cases of AS are the result of an infection ascending from the cervix and in a large percentage of all women who develop AS the cervix is colonized by organisms known to be spread by sexual intercourse.