Evaluation of patient-administered tampon specimens for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Abstract

Background: The patient-administered tampon specimen has proven to be an easy and sensitive method for the diagnosis of genital Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections in women by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This method avoids the need for endocervical sampling and stringent criteria for transport. Goal: To evaluate two commercial amplification systems for the detection of C trachomatis and N gonorrhoeae from tampon specimens. Study Design: A group of 400 positive and negative tampon specimens tested by an in-house PCR method were selected from a pool of more than 2000 previously collected tampons. Overall, 93 C trachomatis-positive and 77 N gonorrhoeae-positive speci..