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Home sampling versus conventional contact tracing for detecting Chlamydia trachomatis infection in male partners of infected women: randomised study

BMJ 1998; 316 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.316.7128.350 (Published 31 January 1998) Cite this as: BMJ 1998;316:350
  1. Berit Andersen, research assistanta (ba@alm.aau.dk),
  2. Lars Østergaard, senior registrar of infectious diseasesb,
  3. Jens K Møller, director of clinical microbiologyb,
  4. Frede Olesen, consultant physiciana
  1. a Research Unit and Department of General Practice, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
  2. b Aarhus University Hospital, DK-8000 Aarhus C
  1. Correspondence to: Dr Andersen
  • Accepted 25 April 1997

Introduction

Urogenital infections with Chlamydia trachomatis are widespread and usually asymptomatic. Major complications from infection include ectopic pregnancies and female infertility.1 Although contact tracing reduces the prevalence of chlamydia infection,2 the test rate among partners is often low, partly because male contacts have to have a urethral swab taken by a doctor.

As the polymerase chain reaction can successfully detect infection in urine samples,3 we investigated whether the test rate could be increased by asking the male contacts of infected women to send a urine sample directly from home to a laboratory instead of having a doctor take a urethral swab.

Subjects, methods, and results

Ninety six women with C trachomatis infection seen in general practices in Aarhus County, Denmark, were randomly divided according to their date of birth into an intervention group (45 patients) and a …

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