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Diagnostic Accuracy of Cervical Pap Smear and Colposcopy in Detecting Premalignant and Malignant Lesions of Cervix

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of pap smear and colposcopy in detecting the premalignant and malignant lesion of the cervix. In this cross-sectional study, a total number of 160 women who presented with abnormal clinical problem or routine checkup during a 6-month period were included. All the patients underwent pap smear and colposcopy by the same gynecologists team, and finally, cervical biopsy was performed in all the individuals. The demographic and clinical characteristics as well as the obstetrics history were recorded. The diagnostic accuracy of each test was calculated according to the biopsy as gold standard. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive values (NPV) were recorded and compared between two modalities. Overall, we included a total number of 160 patients with mean age of 37.6 ± 7.32 (ranging from 24 to 63) years. The sensitivity and specificity of pap smear were found to be 47.19% and 64.79%, respectively. The PPV and NPV of the pap smear were calculated to be 88.69% and 38.46%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity, PPV, and NPV of the colposcopy were calculated as 64.72%, 52.74%, 76.32%, and 95.41%, respectively. The overall diagnostic accuracy of the pap smear and colposcopy was reported to be 82.2% and 96.3%, respectively. The results of this study demonstrate that colposcopy has a higher diagnostic accuracy in detecting cervical premalignant and malignant lesions compared to the pap smear.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the patients and their families who patiently participated in the current study. We would also like to acknowledge the editorial assistance of the Diba Negar Research Institute for improving the English and style of the manuscript.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infertility Research Center, Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Division of Oncology Gynecology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, OB & GYN ward, Faghihi Hospital, Zand Blvd, Shiraz, Iran

    Fatemeh sadat Najib, Zahra Shiravani, Tahereh Poordast & Elham Askary

  2. Fellowship of Oncology Gynecology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Masooumeh Hashemi

  3. Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Sanam Sharifi

Authors
  1. Fatemeh sadat Najib
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  2. Masooumeh Hashemi
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  4. Tahereh Poordast
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Correspondence to Tahereh Poordast.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional review board and medical ethics committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Najib, F.s., Hashemi, M., Shiravani, Z. et al. Diagnostic Accuracy of Cervical Pap Smear and Colposcopy in Detecting Premalignant and Malignant Lesions of Cervix. Indian J Surg Oncol 11, 453–458 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13193-020-01118-2

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