Clinical Case Database / Category: Case Based Discussion

Vaginal discharge

Publication details

James W Gray MRCP FRCPath
Foundation Years Journal, volume 2, issue 3, p.120 (123Doc Education, London, March 2008)

Abstract

Infection is the most common cause of pathological vaginal discharge. The most common infections are bacterial vaginosis (BV) and candidiasis. Sexually transmitted diseases that may present with vaginal discharge include trichomoniasis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea. Because of the long-term morbidity and public health implications of these infections they should always be considered in women at risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Microscopy and culture of vaginal and endocervical swabs are the mainstay of investigation of vaginal discharge, but for some infections they are increasingly being superseded by nucleic acid amplification techniques. In this article the various infective causes of vaginal discharge, and their treatment, are discussed and recommendations for selection of appropriate microbiological investigations according to the clinical presentation are proposed.

Access the Clinical Cases Database

A subscription is required to read the full article. Please subscribe using one of the options below.

Authors

James W Gray MRCP FRCPath (Corresponding author)

Consultant Microbiologist
Department of Microbiology
Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust
Birmingham Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TG

References

1. Macsween KH, Ridgeway GL. ACP Broadsheet No. 153. The laboratory investigation of vaginal discharge. J Clin Pathol 1998;51:564–567.
2. Smellie WSA, Forth J, Sundar S,et al. Best practice in primary care pathology: review 4. J Clin Pathol 2006;59:893–902.
3. British Association for Sexual Health and HIV . http://www .bashh.org/ guidelines.asp, accessed on 10th February 2008.

Disclaimers

Conflict Of Interest

The Journal requires that authors disclose any potential conflict of interest that they may have. This is clearly stated in the Journal’s published “Guidelines for Authors”. The Journal follows the Guidelines against Conflict of Interest published in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/urm_full.pdf).

Financial Statement

The authors of this article have not been paid. The Journal is financed by subscriptions and advertising. The Journal does not receive money from any other sources. The decision to accept or refuse this article for publication was free from financial considerations and was solely the responsibility of the Editorial Panel and Editor-in-Chief.

Patient Consent statement

All pictures and investigations shown in this article are shown with the patients’ consent. We require Authors to maintain patients’ anonymity and to obtain consent to report investigations and pictures involving human subjects when anonymity may be compromised. The Journal follows the Guidelines of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (http://www.icmje.org/urm_full.pdf). The Journal requires in its Guidelines for Authors a statement from Authors that “the subject gave informed consent”.

Animal & Human Rights

When reporting experiments on human subjects, the Journal requires authors to indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the HelsinkiDeclaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

About the Clinical Cases Database

T​he Foundation Years Clinical Cases Database is​ a selection of 600 peer-reviewed clinical cases in the field of patient safety and clinical practice, specifically focused on the clinical information needs of junior doctors, based around the Foundation Year Curriculum programme (MMC). The cases have been chosen to align with the Foundation Year Curriculum.

The database is fully searchable, or can be browsed by medical specialty. Abstracts can be read free of charge, however a subscription is required in order to read the complete cases.