International Journal of STD & AIDS > Volume 19, Number 8 > Pp. 510-513

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Original research articles

Reliability of self-collected versus provider-collected vaginal swabs for the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis

Bineeta Kashyap MD ^* , Ruchira Singh MD , Preena Bhalla MD ^*, Raksha Arora MD  and Abha Aggarwal 

^* Department of Microbiology; Department of Gynaecology, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi-110002; NIMS, ICMR, New Delhi, India

Correspondence to: Dr Bineeta Kashyap Email: dr_bineetakashyap{at}yahoo.co.in

Women reluctant to undergo a per-speculum examination consider self-sampling more acceptable. The aim of this study was to compare self-collected vaginal swabs for detection of bacterial vaginosis (BV), candidiasis and trichomoniasis, with vaginal specimens obtained by the gynaecologist at per-speculum examination. Self-collected and provider-collected vaginal swabs were obtained from 50 women attending the gynaecological outpatients department. The Gram-stained smears and saline wet mounts prepared from the provider-collected vaginal swabs were examined by a microbiologist and a gynaecologist. We determined the validity and the inter-rater reliability of the overall BV score and the morphotype specific score using Kappa statistics. When compared with the provider-collected smear, the ability of the self-collected smear to diagnose BV had a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 97%. With specific instructions to help assure the depth of sampling, self-collected swabs can reasonably approximate specimens obtained by clinicians during speculum examination for the diagnosis of BV.

Key Words: bacterial vaginosis • Gram stain • provider-collected • self-collected

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