RESUMEN
The study was designed in across-sectional pattern, on 335 pregnant -women who attended the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Maternity and Child Teaching Hospital, and some private clinics in AL-Diwaniya city. They were examined for bacterial vaginosis in the period from September 2002 to the end of February 2003. The present study showed that 96 [28.6%] women affected by bacterial vaginosis, 109 [32.6%] women presented with abnormal vaginal discharge due to other causes and 130 [38.8%] women without any signs and symptoms of vaginitis G.vaginalis were isolated from 89 [93.7%], 3[2.7%] and 45[34.6%] of the above mentioned groups respectively. The main age group of bacterial vaginosis occurrence was [25-35%] years, and was more common among pregnant women in the third trimester of pregnancy [40.7%], where the economic status and parity of patient appeared to play no role on the disease prevalence. It was found that the bacterial vaginosis plays an important and significant role in the causation ofpreterm delivery [Odds ratio 2.9]. It was found that Amselrs criteria are good and valid screening tests in the early diagnosis than the cultural technique, because of their high sensitivity and specificity, which yielded [96%, 95%] respectively. Other microorganisms are mainly Candida albicans [11.9%], Staphylococcus aureus [7.4%], Staphylococcus saprophyticus [4.8%], Beta haemolytic streptococcal [3.6%] and to a less prevalence rates for Neisseria gonorrhea [2.6%] and Trichomonas vaginalis [2.08%]