Serological response of patients with non-gonococcal urethritis to causative organism of contagious equine metritis 1977.

The presence of allugtinins to the causative organism of contagious equine metritis (C.E.M.) in human serum has been confirmed. Agglutinins were found in the serum of 84 (37.6%) of 223 patients with non-gonococcal urethritis (N.G.U.), and in 12.5% of these patients there was a four-fold or greater rise in titre during the course of their illness. There was no evidence that these agglutinins were the result of infection by chlamydiae or ureaplasmas. Certain patients with these agglutinins seemed to respond better to therapy with antibiotics to which the C.E.M. bacterium is susceptible in vitro than did patients in whom these agglutinins were not found. The findings suggest that the C.E.M. bacterium or a microorganism related to it may be aetiologically involved in a proportion of patients with N.G.U. A search for such an organism in these patients is in progress.