Endometritis caused by Chlamydia trachomatis

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis was found to be the aetiological agent of endometritis in three women with concomitant signs of salpingitis. All patients developed a significant antibody response to the organism. Chlamydia were recovered from aspirated uterine contents of two patients and darkfield examination of histological sections showed chlamydial inclusions in endometrial cells in one patient. Thus, C trachomatis can be recovered from the endometrium of patients in whom the cervical culture result is negative. In one patient curettage showed endometritis with a characteristic plasma-cell infiltration. The occurrence of chlamydial endometritis may explain why irregular bleeding is a common finding in patients with salpingitis. It also suggests a canalicular spread of chlamydia from the cervix to the Fallopian tubes.