Trichomoniasis Testing in Singapore: Trichomoniasis symptoms in men/women, screening/diagnosis, testing/check, treatment clinic, Singapore. Private and confidential service. Definitions, references, and latest news.
LABORATORY TESTS
Direct microscopy of a wet mount of vaginal secretions mixed with normal saline will show the trichomonads, about the size of white blood cells moving with a jerky motion (sensitivity 60-70%). This is not a sensitive test in men
Culture on Feinberg-Whittington media (sensitivity >90%)
FDA-cleared rapid strip tests e.g. OSOM Trichomonas Rapid Test (an immunochromatographic capillary flow dipstick technology), Affirm™ VP III nucleic acid probe test that evaluates for T. vaginalis, G. vaginalis and C. albicans (sensitivity >83%, specificity >97%). Both these tests are considered point-of-care diagnostics
Trichomonads are sometimes reported on cervical cytology (sensitivity ~ 60-80%) but there is a false positive rate of about 30%. Use of liquid-based pap smear testing has shown enhanced sensitivity. The diagnosis should still be confirmed by direct microscopy of vaginal secretions or culture
An FDA-cleared PCR assay for detection of gonorrhoea and chlamydia infection (Amplicor, manufactured by Roche Diagnostics Corp.) has been modified for vaginalis detection in vaginal or endocervical swabs and in urine from women and men (sensitivity 88-97%, specificity 98-99%)
APTIMA T. vaginalis Analyte Specific Reagents (ASR; manufactured by Gen-Probe, Inc.) also can detect T. vaginalis RNA by transcription-mediated amplification using the same instrumentation platforms available for the APTIMA Combo2 assay for diagnosis of gonorrhoea and chlamydia infection (sensitivity 74-98%, specificity 87- 98%)