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The aim of the research was to analyse the complaints and symptoms in acute Chlamydia trachomatis (C.t.) epididymitis. The analysis of data from history and physical examination was made in dependence on detected Chlamydia infection in the group of 39 patients with the symptoms of acute epididymitis (1--12 men C.t. (+), 2--27 men C.t.(-)). Chlamydial epididymitis more commonly occurred in younger patients, and the symptoms of the disease persisted for a longer time than in the patients with epididymitis of another etiology. None of the men had suffered from nongonorrhoeal epididymitis before, while two of them (16.7 percent) had had urethritis. The difference in etiology was also reflected in the patients' complaints. The discharge from the urethra was more common in the patients with Chlamydia infection (1--58.3 percent, 2--18.5 percent) while epididymis oedema and scrotum erythema where twofold scarcer. No exact correlation between C.t. presence and leukocyte reaction intensity in urethra was noticed. The occurrence of chlamydial epididymitis is not always preceded by symptoms of urethritis and only in some cases they are accompanied by the increase of polynuclear leukocytes in urethral discharge. Chlamydial epididymitis is of milder course when compared to epididymitis of another etiology.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of Chlamydia trachomatis (C.t.) in the etiopathogenesis of epididymitis. 39 patients with symptoms of acute epididymitis were examined. They were divided into two age groups: 1st--patients aged below 35 (24 patients) and 2nd--patients older than 35 yrs (15 patients). The patients' urethral swabs were examined and C.t., mycoplasma and other Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria were searched for as well as leukocyte count was assessed. Anti-Chlamydia trachomatis antibodies of IgG and IgM classes were assayed in serum. Direct immunofluorescence (antigen detection) and immunoenzymatic (antibodies detection) methods were used in C.t. infection diagnostics. C.t. infection in urethra was found in 30.8 percent of patients suffering from epididymitis, whereas in the control group in 2 percent. C.t. infection was significantly more commonly found in patients below 35 (45.8 percent) as compared with the older men (6.7 percent). The most common etiological factor in the younger group was C.t., while in the older group it was E. coli. IgG anti-C.t. antibodies were detected in the serum of 51.3 percent of the patients with acute epididymitis, as compared with 5.8 percent of the men in the control group. Specific IgG antibodies were found significantly more often in patients under 35 (66.7 percent) than in the older men (26.7 percent). Specific IgM antibodies were found in 15.4 percent of the patients, that is in 20.8 percent of the younger patients and in 6.7 percent of the older ones. C.t. is the main etiologic agent of epididymitis in men under 35.