Dr. Senigala Kuruba Anusuya,
BACKGROUND Cervical cancer is one of the most deadly and common forms of cancer among women, worldwide. This disease could is preventable, by detecting it using Pap screening test. The objective of this study was to determine the pattern of various cervical smear abnormalities and to study the prevalence of epithelial cell abnormalities in our study population. METHODS A total of 200 married women between 21-70 years of age were enrolled in the study. Pap smear was done by the conventional method and reporting was done based on the Bethesda system 2014. Emphasis was put on epithelial cell abnormalities and the findings of abnormal epithelial lesions were correlated with histopathology. RESULTS Vaginal discharge was the most common complaint, occurring in 38% of the women. Lower abdominal pain was the complaint of 14% patients and irregular menstrual cycle of 13% of women, while 20% were asymptomatic. 41% had inflammatory changes. Atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), and high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) were detected in 4%, 3.5%, and 1%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Pap smear is a cost-effective simple test mainly to detect precancerous lesions of cervix which can be treated and followed up to down stage the disease.
