Study of cytological pattern of pap smears and detection of cervical cancers in Gujarat, India

Abstract

Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. It can be preventable and diagnosed early with adequate and repetitive cytological screening by pap test. The conventional cervical cytological screening is the most common technique used throughout the world. Objective: To characterize the age and pattern of Pap smear abnormalities in a population of Gujarat, India. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at tertiary care hospital of Gujarat India. All previously collected pap smear from 2011 -2014 was evaluated for cytological pattern and during this duration total 1100 pap smear was evaluated. Results: The mean age of patients with abnormal smears was 37.5 years. The mean parity was 4.34. There were 46 (4.18%) unsatisfactory smears and 1054(95.82%) adequate smears. Atypical squamous cell of undetermined significance(ASCUS), low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), and high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) were reported in 69 (6.54%), 111(10.53%), and 55 (5.21%) women respectively. Atypical glandular cell and squamous cell carcinoma were reported in 10 (0.94%) and 5 (0.47%) respectively Conclusion: This study emphasized the importance of Pap smears screening for early detection of premalignant and malignant lesions of cervix. Pap smear testing is a very useful, simple, economical and safe tool to detect preinvasive cervical epithelial lesions. Hence, on a routine basis, every woman above the age of 30 must be subjected to Pap smear and this must be continued even in post-menopausal period as most of patients with epithelial abnormalities in our study falls in this group.