Cytological studies in women complaining of leucorrhea

Abstract

Cytological evaluation of cervical smears has been carried out in 1675 women attending Gynaecology clinic of Queen Mary's Hospital, Lucknow (January 1981 - December 1995) with complaint of vaginal discharge. This was performed to investigate the incidence of cervical cytopathology and associated infections of sexually transmitted diseases in patients with leucorrhea. As expected, maximum number of cervical smears were found to be inflammatory (57.4%). Cervical dysplasia was seen in 81 cases (4.8%) while malignant cells were detected in 2 cases (0.1 %). Trichomona! infection was associated with maximum number of patients with leucorrhea (8.1%) followed by Candida (2.3%). Among viral infections, cytomorphological changes suggestive of Condyloma was seen in 1.1% and that of Herpes simplex in 0.3% of cases. Concomittant presence of cervical dysplasia and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) was seen in 16.6% of cases with Herpes, 11.1% of condyloma and 0.3% of Trichomonas infections. The incidence of dysplasia showed rise with increasing age and parity. The study highlights the need for Cytological screening of all symptomatic women complaining of discharge and ascertains the utility of cytology in picking up early cervical cancer and associated causative pathogens in patients with leucorrhea.