Abstract
Objective : This study was aimed at evaluating whether intracytoplasmic inclusions (IIs) that are sometimes observed in uterine cervical cytology specimens obtained from patients with chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection are, in fact, specific for CT infection.
Study Design : We enrolled a total of 28 patients with CT infection (CT-infected group) and 30 patients without CT infection (non-CT-infected group) as confirmed by real-time PCR (qPCR). Three types of IIs were detected in the cervical cytology specimens : (1) nebular inclusion (N1), (2) intracytoplasmic inclusion (ICI), and (3) central target formation (CTF). To determine if any of the IIs were specific for genital CT infection, we performed immunocytochemistry with anti-CT antibody and calculated both the rates of detection of the IIs and the rate of immunopositivity (IMP) for CT antigen in the cervical cytology specimens of the study subjects.
Results : There were no significant differences in the rates of detection of ICI and CTF between the CT-infected and non-CT-infected groups. NI and CT IMP were detected only in the CT-infected group, at the rates of about 7.1% and 14.3%, respectively. Thus, but none of the ICI and CTF, showed CT IMP. In addition, some non-IIs-bearing cells with normal morphology detected in the CT-infected group also showed CT IMP.
Conclusion : The data suggest that while the presence of ICI and CTF in cervical cytology specimens may not be specific for CT, the significance of NI needs to be further investigated. The diagnostic ability of cervical cytology for CT infection may be limited.
