Comparison of culture media for the growth of Trichomonas vaginalis.

A number of different media are now in use for the culture of Trichomonas vaginalis. The medium described by Feinberg and Whittington (1957) has been used routinely in this laboratory since 1957. Whittington found that it was a more sensitive method of detecting the flagellate in secretions from the female genital tract than direct microscopical examination of fresh smears. This superiority of cultures over fresh smears was not, however, apparent in the examination of urethral secretions from men with non-gonococcal urethritis. This disparity may be due to the number of T. vaginalis in the inoculum, as the organisms are usually more plentiful in material from the female than from the male genital tract. Whittington (1966) has stated that an inoculum of the order of 5 x 104 trithomonads is generally needed to initiate growth in the Feinberg-Whittington medium. The minimal inoculum of trichomonads to initiate growth in the Feinberg-Whittington medium under aerobic and anaerobic conditions was therefore determined and compared with that for the medium described by Squires and McFadzean (1962) and the cysteine-peptone-liver-maltose (C.P.L.M.) medium described by Johnson and Trussell (1943), and quoted by Trussell (1947). Parallel cultures of secretions from male and female patients were also made with media, and the results were compared with those of direct microscopy of fresh material.