Diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis by a new multiplex peptide nucleic acid fluorescence in situ hybridization method

• Autor(a) principal: Machado, António
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Castro, J., Cereija, Tatiana Barros Reis, Almeida, Carina, Cerca, Nuno
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/34589
• topic: Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH); Peptide Nucleic Acid Probe (PNA probe); Lactobacillus spp.; Gardnerella vaginalis; Bacterial vaginosis; Biofilms; Diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis; Science & Technology

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is one of most common vaginal infections. However, its diagnosis by classical methods reveals low specificity. Our goal was to evaluate the accuracy diagnosis of 150 vaginal samples with research gold standard methods and our Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) probes by Fluorescence in situHybridization (FISH) methodology. Also, we described the first PNA-FISH methodology for BV diagnosis, which provides results in approximately 3 h. The results showed a sensitivity of 84.6% (95% confidence interval (CI), from 64.3 to 95.0%) and a specificity of 97.6% (95% CI [92.699.4%]), demonstrating the higher specificity of the PNA-FISH method and showing false positive results in BV diagnosis commonly obtained by the classical methods. This methodology combines the specificity of PNA probes for Lactobacillus species and G. vaginalis visualization and the calculation of the microscopic field by Nugent score, allowing a trustful evaluation of the bacteria present in vaginal microflora and avoiding the occurrence of misleading diagnostics. Therefore, the PNA-FISH methodology represents a valuable alternative for BV diagnosis.