A Comparison of 3 ways of conventional pap smear, liquid- based cytology and colposcopy vs cervical biopsy for early diagnosis of premalignant lesions or cervical cancer in women with abnormal conventional pap test

Abstract

A prospective comparative study of conventional pap smear, liquid based cytology and colposcopy guided biopsy as a screening method for early detection of precursor lesion of ca cervix in 70 women attending OPD at SMSMC Jaipur. Pap smear, liquid based cytology taken and patient subjected to colposcopy guided biopsy. Out of 28 patients positive on pap’s test, only 17 (24.2%) were positive on histopathology whereas out of 45 patients positive on liquid based cytology only 38(54.2%) patients were positive on histopathology. Colposcopy report was positive for 48 patients but histology was positive for 46(65.7%) patients only. Sensitivity of pap smear was found to be 35.4% with high false negative but high specificity. Colposcopy has 90.9% specificity but high sensitivity (95.8%). This study demonstrate that colposcopy has higher sensitivity in diagnosis of any cervical lesions compared to the pap smear and liquid-based cytology and also statistically significant relationship was found between them.