Early Detection of Precursors of Cervical Cancer with Cervical Cytology and Visual Inspection of Cervix with Acetic Acid

Abstract

A hospital-based, prospective study was done in 350 women of 20-50 years to compare VIA with Pap smear for early detection of cervical dysplasia at Maternity Hospital, Thapathali, from May 2004 to December 2004. Pap smear was taken from each woman followed by VIA. Women with positive VIA and/or positive Pap smear were referred for colposcopy-directed cervical biopsy. The variables studied were age group, presenting complaint, age of marriage, parity, smoking habit and appearance of cervix. The incidence of positive VIA and Pap smear was 2.86 and 0.57 respectively. Pelvic pain was the most common presenting complaint. The majority of the women were married before 20 years of age. All women with either positive VIA and/or Pap smear were of parity two or above. There was no significant association between smoking and positive VIA (P=0.699) or Pap smear (P=0.397). Approximately 36.57% of the women screened had abnormal looking cervix. There were two women with high grade intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and both were VIA positive and this was statistically significant (Fischer exact P=0.0007). Of the ten VIA positive women, on histopathological examination six showed chronic cervicitis, one acute cervicitis, one showed cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) II, one had normal finding and one was lost to follow up. VIA as a screening test for cervical neoplasia did not miss any lesion detected by Pap smear and confirmed by cervical biopsy.