Evaluation of a fast test to identify the presence of proline aminopeptidase in women with bacterial vaginosis
✍ Scribed by Ernesto Calderón; Roberto Rivera; Silvia Gordillo; Carlos Conde-Glez
- Publisher
- Hindawi Publishing Corporation
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 61 KB
- Volume
- 5
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1064-7449
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the activity of proline aminopeptidase by a rapid paper strip test in women with bacterial vaginosis (BV).
Methods: Vaginal secretions of 1,387 voluntary patients attending the Obstetrics and Gynecology Infectious Diseases Clinic at Juárez Hospital of Mexico City were collected and examined. Patients were assigned into 2 groups: 483 with BV according to clinical and laboratory criteria and 604 without BV as the control group. For the purposes of this study, 300 patients with trichomonas and/or yeast were excluded from the BV group. The strips were prepared by using L-proline -naphthylamide and L-proline p-nitroanilide as the substrates to detect proline aminopeptidase activity in concentrated vaginal secretions. In parallel, all samples were also analyzed with the standard methods in microplates containing either sustrate as a control of the rapid strip test. The test was interpreted after 3-5 min of incubation.
Results: The results in the strip and microplate assays were similar in 95% of the samples. Sensitivity was 91.7% and specificity was 94.2%; probability of BV if the test is positive was 92.6% and negative predictive value was 93.4%.
Conclusions: These findings indicate that this aminopeptidase rapid strip assay provides a 3-5 min identification of activity of the enzyme in women with BV. The procedure is a rapid, non-expensive, sensitive, and useful test at the gynecologic clinic.