Chlamydial cervicitis: role of culture, enzyme immunoassay and Giemsa cytology in diagnosis.

Three different laboratory tests were carried out to find the occurrence of chlamydial infections in a selected group of 150 female patients presenting clinically with cervicitis. The tests included isolation using a cell culture system, enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for antigen detection and Giemsa cytology of endocervical smears. Contrary to earlier reports on cytological diagnosis of chlamydial cervicitis, endocervical smears stained by Giemsa stain and EIA for antigen detection were found to be of comparable sensitivity and specificity (73.1% and 86.3% for smear, and 76.1% and 90.9% for EIA, respectively) when cell culture was used as the gold standard.