[Influence of chlamydial infection on fallopian tubes and its relation to cervical antigen and serum antibodies].

Relation between chlamydial infection and oviductal changes and their screening method were studied by laparoscopic findings obtained from cases (group A; positive intracervical antigen detected by Chlamydiazyme) and from other cases (group B; negative antigen, but positive IgG antibodies detected by micro-immunofluorescence, MIF). Group A consisted of 8 cases/15 tubes, and group B of 20 cases/40 tubes. These two groups were called infection groups, and there was a control group of 14 cases/28 tubes with negative results for both tests. (1) No significantly different incidence was noted between groups A and B for perifimbrial (PFA) and peritubal (PTA) adhesions and tubal occlusions (TO). (2) The control group had significantly lower incidences for the number of tubes with PFA or TO than the infection group. (3) Even in 20 cases without an alleged history of PID (pelvic inflammatory disease), 15 cases belonged to group B. It was concluded that chlamydial infection may cause latent tubal lesions and a chlamydial antibody study should be involved in predicting them, because it would detect an unignorable number of pathologic cases which would have probably been missed if cervical antigen test and/or alleged PID history were the only screening procedures used.