What Is a Chlamydia Test?

Chlamydia is a kind of microorganism that is different from bacteria and viruses. It belongs to prokaryotes, that is, the nucleus of a cell that does not form a nuclear membrane. Chlamydia is the only prokaryote that has a strict intracellular parasite with a two-phase reproduction cycle. It is divided into two stages: the extracellular phase with inactive metabolism and the proliferative intracellular phase. According to its antigenic properties, morphology, and glycogen content, it is divided into: Chlamydia trachomatis, Chlamydia psittaci, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Chlamydia veterinary (non-pathogenic to humans). The pathogenic mechanism of chlamydia is to inhibit the metabolism of infected cells, lyse and destroy cells and cause the release of lytic enzymes, the cytotoxic effect of metabolites, causing allergies and autoimmunity. Chlamydia infection can cause many diseases such as uterine infection, premature delivery, abortion, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, bronchitis, gastroenteritis, encephalomyelitis, conjunctivitis and arthritis.

Basic Information

Chinese name

Chlamydia detection

Method

Gold label statutory chlamydia rapid detection

Advantages

Fast, convenient and accurate

Field

medicine

Chlamydia detection normal reference range

negative

Clinical significance of chlamydia detection

The diagnosis of chlamydia infection mainly relies on laboratory methods.

1. Cell culture method: The cell culture method is considered as the "gold standard" method, and its sensitivity, specificity, positive expected value and negative expected value are all reliable and repeatable. The disadvantage is the time-consuming and labor-intensive technical requirements.

2. Direct smear microscopy: take eye conjunctiva, cervical swabs or scrapers as smears, brush the secretions or lavage fluid with bronchoscopy of lower respiratory tract infection to detect the chlamydia trachomatis inclusion body in the epithelium cytoplasm.

3. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) detects chlamydia antigens in clinical specimens. This method is sensitive, simple and fast, but has cross-reactions with bacteria, and false positives can occur, especially nasopharyngeal specimens.

4. Complement binding test: antibody titer 1: 64 is of diagnostic value; in the acute phase and recovery phase of double sera, the antibody titer is more than 4 times higher, the diagnostic significance is more significant.

5. Nucleic acid detection: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used to detect Chlamydia DNA, which can directly identify the species and type of Chlamydia from specimens.