Cervicography as an adjunctive test to visual inspection with acetic acid in cervical cancer detection screening

Abstract

Objective: Validate Digital Cervicography as adjunctive cervical cancer screening test to VIA and Cytology. Method: Women (1292) were submitted to both cytological and VIA tests to obtain a sample of 301 positive VIA cases (23.3%) which have had the Digital Cervicography (DC) taken and evaluated. Just cases considered positive by DC (149/301 cases — 49.5%) and/or positive Pap smear tests were referred to colposcopy and biopsy whenever indicated. Results: Cervical smear was positive in 5.4%, including LGSIL (4%), HGSIL (1%) and one case of invasive cancer (0.4%), and 1.6% of ASCUS or AGUS). DC identified 81 positive cases (74 LGSIL; 5 HGSIL; 2 cancers). The sensitivity of cytology was 14.8%, and the DC was 100%. Corresponding specificities were 95.4% and 69.1%, respectively. The NPV and PPV for DC were 100% and 54.4%. Conclusion: DC increases sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of VIA, becoming a valid adjunctive screening test for cervical cancer in low resource settings.