الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 195 |  |  |
| | | from | 195 | | |
Abstract
Chlamydia trachomatis continues to be the major cause of endocervical infections in females. These infections are often asymptomatic and if undetected progress to cause endometritis and pelvic inflammatory disease, with resulting ’infertility and ectopic pregnancy(Schwebke et al.,1991). In North America and westem Europe prevalence of this infection is between 4.9% and 35% in women depending on the population studied,and in the United States it has been estimated that the annual incidence of chlamydial infections is around 4 million,surpassing gonorrhoea as the most common sexually transmitted disease(Cottingham and Hunter, 1 992). In Egypt,there is not enough data as regards the actual prevalence of chlamydia ,because diagnostic tests for STD’s are not readily available and there is no routine STD screening program. The requirement for an early diagnosis of chlamydial infection can be satisfied by using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) a technique that can compete with the cell culture method for both specificity and sensitivity (Vogels et al.,1993),as it is capable of detecting one elementary body in the clinical sample( Gilroy et al, 1992) .