Original Research Article
Year: 2021 | Month: January | Volume: 11 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 48-53
PAP Smear and HPV Co-Testing - Need of the Hour
Shital Joshi*, Rashmi Parikh**
*Consultant Pathologist, Sahyadri Speciality Labs, Pune.
**Consultant Pathologist, Sahyadri Speciality Labs, Pune.
Corresponding Author: Shital Joshi
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Cervical cancer is one of the major causes of mortality among the women in developing countries. Pap smear is a method of cervical screening used to detect premalignant and malignant conditions of cervix. Present research aimed to study and analyze the utility of pap smear and HPV screening in women.
Material and Methods: We screened 9900 women in the age group of 20 to 70 years between 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2019 presenting with different gynecological complaints and as a part of preventive health check-ups. Smears were reported according to 2001 Bethesda. Also, the HPV testing was carried out in the cases as advised by clinician.
Results: Out of 9900 cases, 80.8% cases were benign comprising of Negative for intraepithelial neoplasia(NILM), 16.2 % cases were inflammatory, 1.5 % cases were of atypical squamous cells of undermined significance, 0.7 % cases low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, 0.6 % cases high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, 0.1% cases atypical glandular cells of undermined significance, 0.02 % cases were of squamous cell carcinoma. Out of 1420 cases which underwent HPV testing, 7.1% came out to be positive for HPV infection.
Out of the HPV positive cases, 68.62% were high risk category and 31.43% were low risk category.
Conclusion: Pap smear is a proven strategy. Even asymptomatic women in age group of 20 to 35 years must be subjected to cervical screening. But HPV along with cytology should now be new the gold standard for follow up and screening of cervical cancer. High risk category HPV positivity, will give better prediction about cervical cancer.
Key words: Papanicolaou smear, Atypical squamous cells of the cervix, Squamous intraepithelial lesions, Squamous cell carcinoma, Squamous cell cancer.