An Investigation on the Frequency of Actinomyces in the Women with and without the I.U.D

There has been an increasing number of reports of actinomyces infecting the female genital tract, articularly in women using an intrauterine contraceptive device (LU.D)Most of findings are based on the detection of actinomyces spp. in papanicolaou smears and mmunofluoresence with actynomyces antisera. Other organisms normally present in the vagina may esemble actinomyces in papanicolaou smears and if antisera are not tested against a wide range of anaerobs, cross-reactions with other bacterial species may occur.In this study microbiological techniques were used enabling us to isolate actinomyces spp. from ervicovaginal specimens. The population was consisted of 514 women attending obstetrics and gynecology clinics. The cervico-vaginal swab specimens were obtained from two groups of women. The first group was consisted of274 users of the LV.D and the second group was consisted of240 women ithout the LV.D. The patients had symptoms such as vaginal discharge, cervicitis, vulval irritation, pelvic pain, hemorrhage and irregular bleeding. The cervico-vaginal smears were stained with the gram stain and were screened for evidence of actinomyces like organisms. Examination of cervico-vaginal smears revealed the presence of the actinomyces-like organisms in 16.78% ofthe women having the LV.D and 3.75% ofthe woman without the LU.D.Actiomyces were isolated by culturing the cervico-vaginal specimen from the two groups, consisting of 0 cases (18.24%) of the women with the LV.D, and 35 cases (14.58%) ofthe women without an LV.D. The difference between the two groups of women was not statistically meaningful.Our finding indicated that the type ofLV.D is not related to the colonised actinomyces, and the organisms isolated from the both Iypes of LV.D supper devices (Cupper-T), and plastic devices (Lipps-Loop), had no significant differences.In this study we found no relationship between the duration of the use of the LV.D and the actinomyces colonisation increase. The isolated species from the two groups were: A. Israelii (50%), A.naeslundii 35%), and A.viscosus (14%).These findings suggest that actinomyces are naturally present in genital tract of some women and the use LV.D has not caused a significant increase in the rate of positive actinomyces cases.