{"title":"A New Real-Time PCR Test (Flora Select™) and Nugent Score for the Diagnosis of Bacterial Vaginosis During Pregnancy.","authors":"Hideto Yamada, Shigeki Shimada, Hajime Ota, Yuta Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Fukushi, Shinichiro Wada, Soromon Kataoka","doi":"10.3390/microorganisms12102110","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This prospective cohort study aimed to evaluate the performance of Flora select™ (FS), a newly developed real-time PCR test, for the assessment of the vaginal microbiome during early pregnancy. Five hundred and fifty-six pregnant women underwent examinations of FS, Nugent score-a Gram-staining scoring system for the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis (BV)-and conventional bacterial culture between 8 weeks and 12 gestational weeks. Nugent scores of 0-3, 4-6, and ≥7 were found in 469 (84.2%), 41 (7.4%), and 47 (8.5%) of the women, respectively. Relative dominance rates of <i>Lactobacillus</i> species of high (≥80% medium (50%≤, <80%), and low (0.1≤, <50%), and no detection (<0.1%) were 63.0%, 8.8%, 17.1%, and 11.2%, respectively. <i>Gardnerella</i>, <i>Prevotella</i>, <i>Atopobium</i>, <i>Streptococcus</i>, <i>Ureaplasma</i>, and <i>Mycoplasma</i> species were detected in 23.9%, 17.6%, 17.1%, 7.0%, 23.0%, and 4.9% of the women, respectively. <i>Gardnerella</i> species were detected in all women with Nugent scores ≥7 and <i>Ureaplasma</i> were detected in 40.4% of them. BV-associated bacterial species were also detected in 70.7% of women with Nugent scores of 4-6. <i>Gardnerella</i>, <i>Prevotella</i>, <i>Atopobium</i>, <i>Streptococcus</i>, <i>Ureaplasma</i>, and <i>Mycoplasma</i> species were highly prevalent in women with Nugent scores ≥4 or <i>Lactobacillus</i> species <50%. FS detected <i>Gardnerella</i>, <i>Prevotella</i>, and <i>Atopobium</i> species more effectively than conventional bacterial culture. FS could determine relative dominance rates of <i>Lactobacillus</i> species in the vaginal microbiome, and simultaneously detect four kinds of BV-associated bacteria, <i>Ureaplasma</i> and <i>Mycoplasma</i> species. Therefore, FS may be clinically useful for the screening of the vaginal microbiome during pregnancy to prevent preterm birth and for the assessment of the vaginal microbiome after BV treatments.</p>","PeriodicalId":18667,"journal":{"name":"Microorganisms","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11510540/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Microorganisms","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12102110","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MICROBIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This prospective cohort study aimed to evaluate the performance of Flora select™ (FS), a newly developed real-time PCR test, for the assessment of the vaginal microbiome during early pregnancy. Five hundred and fifty-six pregnant women underwent examinations of FS, Nugent score-a Gram-staining scoring system for the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis (BV)-and conventional bacterial culture between 8 weeks and 12 gestational weeks. Nugent scores of 0-3, 4-6, and ≥7 were found in 469 (84.2%), 41 (7.4%), and 47 (8.5%) of the women, respectively. Relative dominance rates of Lactobacillus species of high (≥80% medium (50%≤, <80%), and low (0.1≤, <50%), and no detection (<0.1%) were 63.0%, 8.8%, 17.1%, and 11.2%, respectively. Gardnerella, Prevotella, Atopobium, Streptococcus, Ureaplasma, and Mycoplasma species were detected in 23.9%, 17.6%, 17.1%, 7.0%, 23.0%, and 4.9% of the women, respectively. Gardnerella species were detected in all women with Nugent scores ≥7 and Ureaplasma were detected in 40.4% of them. BV-associated bacterial species were also detected in 70.7% of women with Nugent scores of 4-6. Gardnerella, Prevotella, Atopobium, Streptococcus, Ureaplasma, and Mycoplasma species were highly prevalent in women with Nugent scores ≥4 or Lactobacillus species <50%. FS detected Gardnerella, Prevotella, and Atopobium species more effectively than conventional bacterial culture. FS could determine relative dominance rates of Lactobacillus species in the vaginal microbiome, and simultaneously detect four kinds of BV-associated bacteria, Ureaplasma and Mycoplasma species. Therefore, FS may be clinically useful for the screening of the vaginal microbiome during pregnancy to prevent preterm birth and for the assessment of the vaginal microbiome after BV treatments.
期刊介绍:
Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607) is an international, peer-reviewed open access journal which provides an advanced forum for studies related to prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms, viruses and prions. It publishes reviews, research papers and communications. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible. There is no restriction on the length of the papers. The full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. Electronic files and software regarding the full details of the calculation or experimental procedure, if unable to be published in a normal way, can be deposited as supplementary electronic material.