A Note on the Results of Cultural and Serological Tests for Pleuropneumonia-like Organisms

The isolation of pleuropneumonia-like organisms (PPLO) from the urethral secretions of patients with non-gonococcal urethritis has been reported by many workers and has led to the suggestion that they may be a possible cause of this condition, although they have also been found in the genital tract of apparently healthy males. Other organisms of the pleuropneumonia group are known to be associated with genital infection in animals, and the frequency of joint lesions in infections with some rat strains has led to the search for PPLO in cases of Reiter's disease, especially as Dienes, Ropes, Smith, Madoff, and Bauer (1948) have reported the isolation of PPLO from synovial fluid obtained from an affected joint in this condition. Subsequent work has not lent support to this view, and Kleineberger-Nobel (1959b) grew PPLO from the urethra of only two out of twenty patients with Reiter's disease and from none of the specimens of joint fluid examined. Because further information seemed desirable, patients with Reiter's disease attending The London Hospital have been examined by cultural and serological methods for evidence of the presence of PPLO and an attempt has been made to relate the bacteriological findings to the stage of the disease and to the effects of treatment.