Diagnóstico clínico presuntivo versus diagnóstico microbiológico en mujeres con leucorrea

the purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation degree between the presumptive clinical diagnosis and the diagnosis based on microbiological studies in 164 patients attended consecutively in two outpatient gynecological clinics in maracaibo, venezuela, who were studied through clinical examination and microbiological examination of vaginal secretions (fresh smear, gram staining and conventional culture). the results showed: a) a weak correlation (56.7%) between the presumptive diagnosis and the final diagnosis, which decreased to 38.2% when asymptomatic cases were excluded; b) clinical diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis (41.0%) and vaginal candidiasis (64.5%); and c) difficulty for clinically diagnosing mixed infections and cases compatible with aerobic vaginitis or cytolytic vaginosis. these results suggest that, even though the symptoms and characteristics of the vaginal fluid can offer some orientation, the presumptive clinical diagnosis of vaginal infections has a high margin of error and can lead to inadequate therapy