Comparison of two microscopic interpretations of vaginal microbiota with molecular profiling

Mariana Durski; Jacques Ravel; Ana C P G Spautz; Newton S Carvalho; Márcia G Silva; Camila Marconi

doi:10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2022.115728

Comparison of two microscopic interpretations of vaginal microbiota with molecular profiling

Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2022 Sep;104(1):115728. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2022.115728. Epub 2022 May 26.

Authors

Mariana Durski¹, Jacques Ravel², Ana C P G Spautz¹, Newton S Carvalho³, Márcia G Silva⁴, Camila Marconi⁵

Affiliations

¹ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tocoginecologia e Saúde da Mulher, Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
² Institute for Genome Sciences, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tocoginecologia e Saúde da Mulher, Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil; Fdederal University of Paraná (UFPR), Sector of Medical Sciences, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
⁴ São Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu Medical School, Department of Pathology, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁵ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tocoginecologia e Saúde da Mulher, Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil; São Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu Medical School, Department of Pathology, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil; Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Sector of Biological Sciences, Department of Basic Pathology, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. Electronic address: marconi.cml@gmail.com.

PMID: 35780749
DOI: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2022.115728

Abstract

Objective: To compare the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis (BV) by Nugent scoring criteria (Nugent-BV) and the diagnosis of BV and/or aerobic vaginitis (AV) using Donders criteria (Donders-BV/AV) for identifying Molecular-BV detected by bacterial 16s rRNA profiling.

Methods: We enrolled 512 women of reproductive age in Brazil with data available on Nugent and Donders microscopic analysis and 16S rRNA sequencing. We constructed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of Nugent-BV and Donders-BV/AV and calculated their area under the curves (AUCs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for matching Molecular-BV.

Results: A total of 155 (28.7%) participants were positive for Nugent-BV. Donders-BV and -AV were detected in 90 (17.6%) and 75 (14.6%) participants, respectively, while 28 (5.5%) had concurrent Donders-BV and -AV. Molecular-BV was identified in 139 (27.1%) participants. Analysis of ROC curves showed that diagnosis of Nugent-BV more accurately aligned with presence of Molecular-BV (AUC: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.84-0.91) when compared to Donders-AV/BV (AUC: 0.84; CI: 0.80-0.87) (P = 0.005).

Conclusion: The use of Nugent-BV is more representative of Molecular-BV than Donders-AV/BV.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; aerobic vaginitis; bacterial vaginosis; microscopy; molecular diagnostics; vaginal microbiota.

MeSH terms

Female
Humans
Microbiota* / genetics
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
Vagina / microbiology
Vaginitis* / diagnosis
Vaginosis, Bacterial* / diagnosis
Vaginosis, Bacterial* / microbiology

Substances

RNA, Ribosomal, 16S