Immunofluorescent method for diagnosis of gonorrhoea in women.

DEACON, Peacock, Freeman, and Harris (1959) showed that the fluorescent antibody (FA) staining technique can be used to demonstrate Neisseria gonorrhoeae in specimens of secretion taken from patients suffering from gonorrhoea. Since then this technique has been widely employed for research but has been less popular for routine use as it is expensive and timeconsuming. Gallwey, Nicol, and Ridley (1967), for instance, reporting a sensitive direct FA staining technique, observed that it was tedious for routine use in a busy clinic or laboratory; the total time taken to stain smears by their method was one hour and many other reported methods take a similar time. The purpose of this paper is to describe a rapid direct FA staining method using readily available reagents, and to report the results obtained in the first 9 months of its routine use in a busy clinic.