Laboratory Diagnosis of Vaginitis: a Review and Update
Vaginitis is the common complaint of women of reproductive age. This lecture is designed to provide a broad overview and brief update on common testing modalities and diagnosis of the three most common causes of vaginitis. This lecture will cover, in brief, the clinical presentation, point-of-care testing, and laboratory diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis, candida vaginitis, and trichomoniasis. Codetection of agents of vaginitis and other sexually transmitted infections will be addressed.
Originally published on April 3, 2025
Lecture Presenter
![]() | Salika M. Shakir, PhD, D(ABMM) Assistant Professor (Clinical) |
Dr. Salika M. Shakir is a medical director for Microbial Amplified Detection and AFB at ARUP Laboratories, and an assistant professor (clinical) at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She received her doctorate degree in microbiology and then pursued a research fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC). Dr. Shakir then completed fellowship training in medical and public health microbiology through the University of Utah and ARUP Laboratories. She is board certified by the American Board of Medical Microbiology. Her research and academic interests focus on the implementation of novel diagnostic assays for pathogen detection in clinical laboratories. She has also successfully conducted several industry-sponsored clinical research projects for diagnostic assays and devices in process for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
Objectives
After this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Describe the common causes of vaginitis
- Discuss laboratory methods to diagnose vaginitis
- Discuss coinfection of vaginitis and sexually transmitted infections
Sponsored by:
University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, and ARUP Laboratories