RESUMO
PIP: 39 longterm oral contraceptive (OC) users (12-15 years) and 30 women who have never used OCs were studied to determine the activity of free alkaline ribonuclease (RNase) in vaginal fluid and in serum. All women were of reproductive age. Of the 30 controls, 14 had cervical erosions, and the remainder were clinically healthy. Of the 39 cases, 12 were clinically free of cervicitis or cervical erosion, 21 had some sort of cervicitis, and 6 had trichomonal vaginitis. The group of women using OCs who had cervical infections showed a significant increase in the RNase activities compared with the clinically free pill users (P .025 and .005, respectively). The activity of serum and vaginal free alkaline RNase activity was higher and statistically significant in the controls with cervical erosion compared with clinically free controls (P .001). In addition, OC users with cervicitis showed a significant increase in vaginal RNase activity compared with clinically free pill users (P .001), whereas the difference in mean serum RNase was not significant between these 2 groups. Specifically, OC users with trichomonal vaginitis had significantly higher serum and vaginal RNase activity values than nonpill users who were clinically free or who had trichomonas. The OC users with trichomonas showed only a significant increase in serum free RNase compared with OC users with cervicitis (P .001).^ieng
