Dacron

Between September 2009 and July 2010, 135 nonpregnant women of reproductive age were enrolled in a longitudinal study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The clinical study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Written informed consent was appropriately obtained from all participants.
At study entry, participants were asked to answer a lengthy questionnaire on demographics as well as medical, dental, obstetric, hygiene, sexual and behavioral histories. They were also asked to self-collect three midvaginal swabs daily for ten weeks. The first Copan ESwab (Copan Diagnostics, Murrieta, CA, USA) was placed in RNAlater (Ambion, Austin, TX, USA) for use in future metatranscriptomics analyses. A second Copan ESwab was placed in Amies liquid transport medium for use later in extracting genomic DNA. Third, a Starplex double-headed Dacron swab (Starplex Scientific, Cleveland, TN, USA) was stored dry in a tube for later use in metabolomic and metaproteomic analyses. One of the Dacron swabs was also used to prepare a smear that was later Gram-stained for Nugent scoring. In addition, the participants measured their vaginal pH using the CarePlan VpH test glove (Inverness Medical Innovations, Waltham, MA, USA). Finally, participants completed a diary each day to record hygienic practices and sexual activities using a standardized form on which all responses were precoded. Pelvic examinations were performed at the time of enrollment and at weeks 5 and 10 or at interim times if the participant reported vaginal symptoms. A diagnosis of SBV was made when three of four Amsel criteria were recorded by the clinician and the participants reported symptoms spontaneously or upon direct questioning. ABV was defined as a finding of three of four Amsel criteria, but without self-report of any vaginal symptoms. Women diagnosed with SBV were treated for BV using standard of care practices [22 (link)]. Women with ABV were not treated. Clinical and selected daily behavioral data are described in Additional file 1.

A population-based trachoma survey was conducted on four islands of the Bijagós Archipelago of Guinea Bissau in West Africa, where ocular infection with C. trachomatis and trachomatous eye disease are hyperendemic. Trachoma survey methodology has been described previously (27 (link)–29 ). Individuals from randomly selected households in these communities attended for clinical examination and conjunctival sampling between January and March 2012.
A single trained examiner assessed each participant. In this analysis, the WHO simplified grading system was used to assign a trachoma grade to the right and left upper tarsal conjunctivae of each consenting participant.
Ocular swab specimens were collected from a consecutive series of participants. Samples were taken from the left upper tarsal conjunctiva of each participant with Dacron swabs (Fisher Scientific, Loughborough, United Kingdom) using a validated, well-tolerated, standardized protocol (8 (link)). Swabs were kept on ice in the field and frozen to −80°C within 8 h of collection. Negative-control specimens were collected in the presence of a participant by passing the swab in front of the participant's eye without making contact.

An isolated replacement of the proximal aortic arch was performed using different straight Dacron grafts.