Comparison of latex agglutination, wet preparation, and culture for the detection of Trichomonas vaginalis.

OBJECTIVES To compare the performance of three diagnostic methods for Trichomonas vaginalis infection-latex agglutination, saline wet mount, and culture. METHODS Vaginal swabs from 3807 women attending antenatal clinics were tested for the presence of T vaginalis by latex agglutination. All positives and the following two negatives were tested by wet preparation and culture. RESULTS The prevalence of infection by latex agglutination was 5.4%. Using an expanded gold standard based on the wet mount and culture results, the sensitivity of the latex agglutination test was 98.8% (95% CI 95.9 to 99.9) and specificity was 92.1 (89.2 to 94.5). The kappa index for test agreement was 0.93 for latex and culture and 0.88 for latex and wet preparation. CONCLUSION The latex agglutination test is a highly sensitive test for detecting T vaginalis infection. It is a simple rapid test and has the potential for use in screening and diagnostic settings.