Developing an algorithm for the diagnosis of abnormal vaginal discharge in a dutch clinical setting: a pilot study.

Abnormal vaginal discharge may be caused by bacterial vaginosis, vulvovaginal candidiasis, trichomoniasis and/or aerobic vaginitis. For the development of a diagnostic algorithm, tree-based classification analysis was performed on symptoms, signs and bedside test results of 56 patients, and laboratory tests (culture, Nugent score, qPCRs) were compared. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was used as reference test for bacterial vaginosis and aerobic vaginitis, culture for vulvovaginal candidiasis and qPCR for trichomoniasis.

The vaginal microbiota in the course of bacterial vaginosis treatment.

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is perceived as a condition of disrupted vaginal microbiota, but remains of unknown aetiology. In this study, vaginal microbiota composition was determined in twenty-one women with BV, before and after treatment with metronidazole or clindamycin. Microbiota composition varied greatly between women and defining a (un)healthy vaginal microbiota state remains elusive, challenging BV diagnosis and treatment.

Nasal microbiota dominated by Moraxella spp. is associated with respiratory health in the elderly population: a case control study.

Background: The elderly (≥65 years) are one of the populations most at risk for respiratory tract infections (RTIs). The aim of this study was to determine whether nasal and/or oropharyngeal microbiota profiles are associated with age and RTIs.

Methods: Nasal and oropharyngeal swabs of 152 controls and 152 patients with an RTI were included.

Inter- and Intra-patient Variability Over Time of Lesional Skin Microbiota in Adult Patients with Atopic Dermatitis.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic, inflammatory skin disorder associated with colonization and reduced microbiota diversity (–3). New treatments are being evaluated using clinical AD scores and skin microbiota composition (–8). Most study designs include the collection of a single sample before and after treatment.

Impact of Host DNA and Sequencing Depth on the Taxonomic Resolution of Whole Metagenome Sequencing for Microbiome Analysis.

The amount of host DNA poses a major challenge to metagenome analysis. However, there is no guidance on the levels of host DNA, nor on the depth of sequencing needed to acquire meaningful information from whole metagenome sequencing (WMS). Here, we evaluated the impact of a wide range of amounts of host DNA and sequencing depths on microbiome taxonomic profiling using WMS.