Sensitivity and Specificity of VIA in Diagnosing Cervical Cancer and Precancerous Lesions

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of death in women in India. Cervical Cancer is the most preventable cancer in women as it has a long premalignant phase. Cytological screening is most frequently used method. Visual inspection using acetic acid can be used as an alternative of Pap smear in a low-resource countries. Keeping this in mind this study was done to determine the sensitivity and specificity of VIA in detection of cervical cancer and precancerous lesions. Material and Method: Five hundred and twenty-five women over a period of two years were included in the study. VIA was performed and Pap’s smear, colposcopy, cervix biopsy were performed in women having VIA positive results, and results were analysed. Results: VIA was positive in 29.3% cases. Out of 154 VIA positive cases, precancerous lesions were observed in 111 cases by cytology, 132 cases by colposcopy and 136 cases by histopathology. Sensitivity and specificity of VIA to diagnose precancerous lesions were 88.3% and 95.4% respectively. In 11.7% cases VIA was false positive. Positive predictive value was 88.3% and negative predictive value was 95.4% for VIA. Conclusion: VIA is a safe, acceptable, and effective test that can save lives from cervical cancer even in remote areas with few resources.