File:Bacteria - gram-stained vaginal smear 04.jpg

Gram-Stained Vaginal Smear

Gram-stained vaginal smear showing mainly non- Lactobacillus crispatus cell types with long or short, thin lactobacilli.

• grade I microflora (suggested new grade 1b)
• microscopic image (100×)

Smear Image Links: L. crispatus | L. crispatus | non-L. crispatus with thin lactobacilli | non-L. crispatus with thin lactobacilli | mixture non-L. crispatus with L. crispatus | mixture non-L. crispatus with L. crispatus | irregular-shaped Gram positive rod | irregular-shaped Gram positive rod | mixture Lactobacillus and bacterial vaginosis-associated | mixture Lactobacillus and bacterial vaginosis-associated | bacterial vaginosis | bacterial vaginosis

Links: Menstrual Cycle - Histology | Histology - Gram Stain | Bacterial Vaginosis | CDC (USA) Fact Sheet - Bacterial Vaginosis

Microflora Grade

• Grade I - when only Lactobacillus cell types (large Gram positive rods) were present.
• Grade II - (intermediate) when both Lactobacillus and Gardnerella or Bacteroides-Prevotella cell types were present.
• Grade III - (bacterial vaginosis) when Lactobacillus cell types were absent and only Gardnerella, Bacteroides-Prevotella or Mobiluncus cell types were present.
• Grade IV - when Gram positive cocci were predominantly present.

Reference

<pubmed>16225680</pubmed>| PMC1266370 | BMC Microbiol.

© 2005 Verhelst et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Original file name: Figure 1. (Panel D from full figure, size and contrast adjusted)

File:Bacteria - gram-stained vaginal smear 04.jpg