White blood cells on gram stain as a treatment Indicator for chlamydial infection

Chlamydia infection in the United States has the highest incidence of all infectious diseases tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is often without symptoms and there is no rapid, cost-effective test method that provides both high sensitivity and specificity. Consequently, the spread of the disease often occurs by patients who are unaware that they are infected. Gram stain is one test which can be performed relatively quickly and inexpensively. Although not able to directly detect chlamydia, it is capable of detecting the presence of white blood cells (WBCs) indicative of infection. This study sought to examine what relationship may exist between either the presence or absence of WBCs on Gram stain and chlamydia infection. It also sought to identify other clinical factors with relationships to chlamydia infection.

The clinic charts from 54 patients of a public health sexually transmitted diseases clinic in northwestern Pennsylvania, were reviewed. A matched groups design comparing the Gram stain WBC results of patients who tested DNA chlamydia-positive and DNA chlamydia-negative was performed. Other clinical factors were also compared between the two groups.