Vaginal Acidity and Whiff Test for Screening Bacterial Vaginosis in Pregnant Women

Abstract

Background: It has been acknowledged that bacterial vaginosis (BV) in pregnant women is associated with miscarriage and premature delivery. Microscopic examination of vaginal secretion should be used in the diagnosis of BV. Nevertheless, usually microscope does not exist in antenatal care facility in the community based setting. Therefore, screening tool of BV among pregnant women attending antenatal care that is simple, cheap, and fast is needed. Methods: Diagnostic study was conducted among pregnant women attending antenatal care in the Community Health Centre. Vaginal acidity combines with whiff test were used as a screening tool, and compared blindly with Gram stain of vaginal smear as a gold standard to diagnose BV. Results: This study showed that the sensitivity and specificity of the vaginal acidity combine with whiff test to diagnose BV were 93.1% and 69% respectively. It means that false negative and false positive were 6.9% and 31% respectively. In the screening method, high sensitivity or less false negative is needed. Therefore, only few people who really have the disease (the false negative) can’t be reached by the gold standard of diagnostic test. Conclusions: It could be concluded that the combination of vaginal acidity and whiff test is a useful tool for screening BV in pregnant women especially in the community-based health facility