Laboratory testing for Chlamydia trachomatis urogenital infections.

This review focuses on the laboratory diagnosis of Chlamydia trachomatis urogenital infections in adult patients. Laboratory diagnoses of C. trachomatis have rapidly evolved over the last two decades. The evolution from culture to enzyme immunoassay to nucleic acid amplification assay was a big step in the advance in technology. This advance has helped to improve the diagnosis and prevention of the major public health problem that is chlamydia infection. The sensitivity and specificity data quoted in Table 1 are based on the new expanded gold standard from different studies, not just cell culture.