Correlation between cytopathology and histopathology in women with squamous cell abnormalities of the uterine cervix

Abstract

Objective: The objective of our study was to investigate the correlation between cytology and cervical biopsy findings in women with squamous cell abnormalities on cervical cytology. Material and Methods: A comparative retrospective study was conducted in the period from September 2015 to March 2016 in a series of 184 sexually active women, aged from 20 to 60 years, with squamous cell abnormalities in the liquid-based cytology test. In all women, cervical biopsy with endocervical curettage was performed colposcopically for histopathological analysis. Results: Cytologically, there were 118 (64.13%) atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US), 22 (11.96%) low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), 38 (20.65%) high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) and 6 (3.26%) invasive squamous cell carcinoma cases. According to the histopathological findings in the cervical biopsy and/or endocervical curettage material in 108 (58.70%) women only nonneoplastic lesions were diagnosed. Twenty-four (13.04%) women had histologically confirmed LSIL, 42 (22.83%) had HSIL and in 10 (5.43%) cases invasive SCC was confirmed. For all squamous cell abnormalities, the sensitivity of the liquid-based cytology test in LSIL and higher grade lesions was 58.70% (108/184) and false positivity was 41.30% (76/184). Excluding ASC-US lesions, the sensitivity of the liquid-based cytology test was 78.80% (52/66) and the false positivity was 21.21% (14/66). The positive predictive value was 100% (6/6) for invasive SCC, 68.42% (26/38) for HSIL and 31.82% (7/22) for LSIL. Conclusions: The high sensitivity of the liquid-based cytology test for HSILs shows that it is an effective screening test for cervical cancer and its precursor lesions.