General and Morphological Characteristics of Study Participants
The demographic information and clinical characteristics of the 29 patients are summarized in Table 1. In total, 15 patients were included in the normal group (CTL), and 14 were diagnosed with vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) due to C. albicans. There were no significant differences in age between the groups. The median body mass index (BMI) across the groups was around 23, with no significant difference between the two groups. Moreover, both the Nugent score and AV score of the subjects were 0-1/0-2, showing no significant difference between the CTL and VVC groups. The LBG classification was also similar between the two groups. However, women in the VVC group exhibited symptom and sign scores ≥7 (Table 2); controls scored only 0-1 on this criterion. All subjects suffering from VVC had a disruption of the vaginal microbiome, and the cleanliness of vaginal discharge was III-IV°.
Table 1. Characteristics of Study Participants