Publication:

Study of abnormal cervical cytology in papanicolaou smears in a tertiary care center

Background Cancer cervix is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in developing countries like India most probably due to lack of proper screening facilities in the rural and suburban areas or due to the lack of awareness amongst the women of developing countries. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the world. Developing countries accounted to about 80% of the global burden. This study was conducted to highlight the importance of Pap smear study in differentiating premalignant and malignant lesions.

Methods This retrospective study was conducted among 1000 cervical pap smears of women with age group 20 to 75 years coming to the cytology section of pathology department, L.N. Medical College and Research centre, Bhopal, India between the time periods of 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2015. All the smears were reported as per the 2014 Bethesda system.

Results In this study, maximum cases were of negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy 754 cases (75.4%) followed by low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion with 74 cases (7.4%) (followed by high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion with 12 cases (1.2%) then atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance 12 cases (1.2%) and minimum number of carcinoma cases 08 (0.8% - including 0.6% of squamous cell carcinoma and 0.2% of adenocarcinoma).

Conclusions Cervical cytology by Pap smear is an important tool for early detection of premalignant and malignant lesions of cervix. Regular Pap smear screening should be conducted in vulnerable age group.