Abstract
PURPOSE Our aim was to assess the accuracy of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) as a screening method for cervical lesions. METHODS VIA and cytologic smears were carried out on the cervices of nonpregnant women age 30 to 60 years with no previous history of cervical cancer. Cervices with acetowhite lesions or positive Pap smears, as well as 1 in 10 negative cervices (control), were biopsied. RESULTS Of patients, 10,020 women were enrolled and 9,626 (96.1%) were screened. With screening, 9,534 patients (99.0%) had adequate cytology smears, 1,148 (11.9%) underwent colposcopy, and 3,486 biopsies were obtained, of which 1,056 were controls. Sensitivity of VIA was 70.4% versus 47.7%, specificity was 77.6% versus 94.2%, positive predictive value was 44.0% versus 67.2%, and negative predictive value was 91.3% versus 87.8% for Papanicolau test, respectively. CONCLUSION VIA has acceptable test qualities and is now well implemented as a large-scale screening method in Cameroon.
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