Comparison of the Methods of Diagnosis of Bacterial Vaginosis

background and Objective: Although Nugent’s criterion is considered as the gold standard, routinely a combination of various methods is used for the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis. In the present study we compared culture, Spiegel’s criteria and Amsel’s criteria with Nugent’s method for the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis. Materials and Methods: Five hundred and twenty seven women who attended the Government Maternity Hospital and a tertiary care centre in south India for antenatal care or forany other complaint formed the study population. Diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis was done by culture, Amsel’s, Nugent’s and Spiegel’s criteria. The positive predictive value, the negative predictive value and the sensitivity and specificity of these methods,in comparison with Nugent’s criteria, by considering it as the gold standard, were calculated. Statistical analysis was done by using the Chi Square test or the Fisher’s exact test as