African Journal of
Microbiology Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Microbiol. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0808
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJMR
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 5228

Full Length Research Paper

Prevalence of Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum among women with unexplained infertility, with and without vaginitis and cervicitis

Jafar Khan* and Robeena Farzand
Department of Microbiology, Kohat University of Science and Technology Kohat, KPK, Pakistan.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 14 March 2011
  •  Published: 18 April 2011

Abstract

 

The main objective of this study was to find the incidence of urogenital mycoplasma such asMycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum among patients with history of infertility of unexplained origin and to ascertain their implications in non specific cervicitis and non specific vaginitis. The total number of (n = 337) female patients with history of un-explained vaginitis and cervicitis were screened to observe the prevalence of urogenital mycoplasmas in the disease. Both the high vaginal swabs (HVS) and mid-stream urine were cultured on the liquid media, U-9, and the solid differential mycoplasma agar A-7. The differentiation 0f the implicated organisms were made on the basis of metabolic characteristics of the species. Amongst the total (n = 337) samples, the n = 89 (26.40%) were positive for M. hominis whereas n= 162 (48.07%) isolates determined the U. urealyticum. Upon the outcomes of disease, the cases of non-specific cervicitis yielded the growth of M. hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum as 32.58% and 59.87% respectively, whereas, among patients of non specific vaginitis, the M. hominis and U. urealyticum were isolated in ratio of 59.55 and 21.60% likewise. From the obtained data in both categories, no solid and direct etiological evidence could be linked to a definite disease outcome of infertility. However, it is certain that these mycoplasmas do cause the urogenital problems as indicated by percents of isolates obtained exclusively. Consequently, after the infection, these organisms could possibly associate for their role in the reproductive failure due to the resulting pathological complications in the urogenital tract of women.

 

Key words: Mycoplasma hominis, Ureaplasma urealyticum, urogenital infections.