Question:medium
A young sexually active female presents with intense pruritus and a watery vaginal discharge. A wet-mount smear is examined. What does the smear most likely show?
A young sexually active female presents with intense pruritus and a watery vaginal discharge. A wet-mount smear is examined. What does the smear most likely show?
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Itching plus watery (frothy) discharge with motile flagellates on wet smear.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
- Trichomonas vaginalis
- Candida vaginitis
- Gardnerella vaginalis
- HIV
Show Solution
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Map the symptoms. Marked itching plus a runny, watery discharge in a sexually active young woman is the textbook presentation of a Trichomonas vaginalis infection (a sexually transmitted protozoal vaginitis).
Step 2: Use the diagnostic test cited. Microscopy of a saline wet smear reveals actively swimming, flagellated, ovoid trichomonads. Their characteristic darting movement confirms the diagnosis at the bedside.
Step 3: Eliminate the rest. Yeast (Candida) produces cheesy white plaques with hyphae on KOH; Gardnerella causes an odorous gray discharge with clue cells and little itching; HIV produces no specific finding on a vaginal smear and is diagnosed serologically, so none of these fits a pruritic watery smear-positive picture.
Step 4: Hence the answer is Trichomonas vaginalis.
\[\boxed{\text{Trichomonas vaginalis}}\]
Step 2: Use the diagnostic test cited. Microscopy of a saline wet smear reveals actively swimming, flagellated, ovoid trichomonads. Their characteristic darting movement confirms the diagnosis at the bedside.
Step 3: Eliminate the rest. Yeast (Candida) produces cheesy white plaques with hyphae on KOH; Gardnerella causes an odorous gray discharge with clue cells and little itching; HIV produces no specific finding on a vaginal smear and is diagnosed serologically, so none of these fits a pruritic watery smear-positive picture.
Step 4: Hence the answer is Trichomonas vaginalis.
\[\boxed{\text{Trichomonas vaginalis}}\]
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