The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 15, Issue 1 141-147, Copyright © 1982 by Society for General Microbiology
Quantitative methods for studies on vaginal flora
M. Wilks, R. N. Thin and S. Tabaqchali
Three recently described methods for quantitative sampling of the bacterial
flora of the vagina were evaluated and none proved satisfactory. In a third
of the samples, paired swabs showed large differences between the two
weights of vaginal secretion collected by this method, and the recovery
rate of bacteria deliberately added to test swabs was unsatisfactorily low.
A calibrated loop gave a wide variation in the amount of secretion
collected, due to variations in density and viscosity of the secretion.
When secretion was collected with a calibrated pipette, it was often
difficult to expel the collected volume from the pipette for testing. The
simple weight-based method was devised in which a loop was used to collect
an undefined volume of secretion for weighting in a tube of transport
medium before homogenisation and quantitative bacteriological testing.
Initial assessment indicates this to be a satisfactory method for
quantitative studies of the vaginal bacterial flora.
