Comparison of the clearview chlamydia test, chlamydiazyme, and cell culture for detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in women with a low prevalence of infection

Abstract

Two antigen detection systems, Clearview Chlamydia (Unipath Ltd., Bedford, United Kingdom) and Chlamydiazyme (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Ill.), were compared with culture for the diagnosis of chlamydia infection in women attending gynecological clinics. Chlamydia trachomatis was isolated from 43 (4.5%) of the 965 women tested. In comparison with tissue culture, the Clearview Chlamydia and Chlamydiazyme tests had sensitivities of 79.0 and 74.4%, respectively, and both had a specificity of 99.6%. The results show that the Clearview Chlamydia test is comparable to Chlamydiazyme for the detection of C. trachomatis from endocervical specimens in a population with a low prevalence of infection.