A multifactor analysis

From an indigent population hospitalized with acute salpingitf, 163 patients were compared with 222 control patients from the minor trauma section of the emergency room. Four factors were significantly different between cases and controls: race, type of contraception, number of sex partners, and previous history of salpingitis. A discriminate analysis based on a linear logistic equation demonstrated that each risk factor was independent rather than a reflection of another risk factor. Thus factors associated with race, IUD use, multiple sexual partners, and previous satpfngitis increase the risk of salpingitis in the population studied. (AM. J. QBSTET. GYNECOL. 135402, 1979.) REPORTS OF SEVERE pelvic inflammatory disease produced by the silkworm gut intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUD’s) introduced in Germany in the 1920’s discouraged further experimentation with IUD’s for decades. In the late 1950’s, interest in IUD research was renewed partly by increasing worldwide concern about population control and partly by the publication of studies by Oppenheimer’ and Ishihama.’ These authors reported that the risk of pelvic infection from silver Grafenberg and Ota rings was minimal, provided that the IUD’s were inserted aseptically and that patients with acute or chronic pelvic infection were excluded. The development of inert plastic IUD’s by Margulies, Lippes, and others led to a new era of investigation. Studies by Tietze,3 Lippes,4 Satterthwaite and associates5 and others 6, ’ showed pelvic infection rates in IUD users ranging from 0.6 to 3.5%/year.