The risk assessment and predictive value of cytological smear and culture of vaginal discharge in reproductive age group women

Objective To determine the various causes of vaginal discharge in a tertiary care setting.Methodology A total of 120 women presenting with vaginal discharge were subjected to cytological diagnosis and confirmed by culture.Results Out of total 120 women with vaginal discharge, 103 (85.83%) women were found positive for the diagnosis of interest (bacterial vaginosis, candidiasis and trichomoniasis) which were more or less equally divided in the different age groups. Most common reproductive tract infection in study population was bacterial vaginosis (45.8%) followed by candidiasis (25.8%) and trichomoniasis (14.2%). Seventeen (14.2%) women were found to have vaginal discharge without any microbiological evidence.Conclusion The pattern of infectious causes of vaginal discharge observed in our study was comparable with the other studies in India. Our study emphasizes on importance of specific type of cervical discharge in diagnosing various reproductive tract infections (RTIs). This study highlight the opportunity of simultaneous counselling and assessment of co-existing RTIs which could be present in many of the cases.