Rapid diagnosis of chlamydial infection in patients with pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility by immunoperoxidase assay.

The study describes the value of specific chlamydial IgM antibody detection by indirect immunoperoxidase assay (IPA) for early confirmation of cases of primary infertility and pelvic inflammatory diseases (PID) of chlamydial aetiology. Forty-eight infertile women and forty-six women with acute PID were screened. Seven (14.2%) infertility patients and twenty-one (45.6%) PID patients had positive titers for chlamydia trachomatis. The difference in incidence of antichlamydial antibodies in the study group as compared with control was statistically significant (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that in the absence of tissue culture facilities, detection of specific chlamydial IgM antibody is a sensitive serological marker for specific diagnosis of chlamydial infection.