Description
Chlamydial trachomatis is the most prevalent sexuallytransmitted infection in the western world. Historically, endocervical and urethral swabs were used for laboratory diagnosis using culture, but currently a wide range of techniques is available. There is little doubt that, in theory, molecular techniques for chlamydial diagnosis should be more sensitive than the alternatives of culture, direct immunofluorescence and EIA technologies. However, in a diagnostic setting, many factors may have a deleterious impact on the performance of molecular techniques resulting in, at best, only marginal benefits over the third generation EIAs. These issues are discussed in this review.
