Reproductive tract infections research
Research Guide

The vaginal microbiome in reproductive-age women consists of bacterial communities that vary by ethnicity, with Lactobacillus dominance helping prevent urogenital diseases. 'Vaginal microbiome of reproductive-age women' (Ravel et al., 2010) characterized communities in 396 asymptomatic North American women across white, black, Hispanic, and Asian groups. Dysbiosis contributes to infections like bacterial vaginosis and increased STI susceptibility.

Delivery mode shapes the initial microbiota acquisition across multiple newborn body habitats from maternal sources. 'Delivery mode shapes the acquisition and structure of the initial microbiota across multiple body habitats in newborns' (Domínguez-Bello et al., 2010) showed distinct microbial profiles in vaginally delivered versus cesarian-section newborns. This influences early child health outcomes related to maternal reproductive tract microbes.

A standardized Gram stain interpretation improves reliability in diagnosing bacterial vaginosis from vaginal smears. 'Reliability of diagnosing bacterial vaginosis is improved by a standardized method of gram stain interpretation' (Nugent et al., 1991) evaluated intercenter variability and established morphotype scoring. This method enhances consistency in pregnant women assessments.

Intrauterine infections are a major cause of preterm delivery, accounting for significant perinatal mortality. 'Intrauterine Infection and Preterm Delivery' (Goldenberg et al., 2000) reported preterm births represent 10 percent of all births but concentrate severe illness in 1 to 2 percent of infants. Infections drive 70 percent of perinatal mortality and half of neurologic morbidity.

CDC guidelines provide standardized treatments for sexually transmitted diseases. 'Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, 2006' (Skolnik, 2007) summarizes care standards issued in August 2006. The 2015 update in 'Sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines (2015)' (Workowski and Bolan, 2015) refines recommendations post-expert consultation.

DADA2 enables high-resolution inference of microbial samples from Illumina amplicon data. 'DADA2: High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data' (Callahan et al., 2016) provides a method for accurate microbiome analysis with 33,035 citations. It supports studies of vaginal and placental microbiomes in reproductive health.