Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: The aim of this investigation is to evaluate the histologic results of biopsy in women with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) cytologic diagnosis.

Materials and Methods: We reviewed a series of cases with ASCUS pap smears from March 1999 to Feb 2002 in Imam Khomeini Hospital (n= 104), Who had cervical biopsy indirected colposcopy (103) and in Onec endocervical biopsy obtained without colposcopy. In 60 patients before colposcopy and biopsy repeat pap smear was tabled.

Results: Biopsy revealed 28.8% SIL (14 LSIL and 16 HSIL), 1 invasive carcinoma and 1 endometrial carcinoma. Pap smear repeated for 60 women before colposcopy examination, which 7 (11.7%) of them were normal. ASCUS persisted in 45 cases (75%) and 8 cases (13.3%) turned out to be SIL (6 LSIL, 2 HSIL) of 7 normal repeat smear, 2 marked as LSIL by biopsy. In colposcopic examination 22 of 103 (21.4%) had normal view which one of them was LSIL histologically.

Conclusion: Based on these findings, it seems immediate colposcopy and directed biopsy are appropriate procedures for management of ASCUS and to detect underlying SIL.

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Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between atypical glandular cell (AGC) on Pap smear and significant pathologic finding to tailor management protocols.
Methods: Between 2002 and 2005, Among 26893 Pap smears 122 women with AGC Pap smears (prevalence=0.45%) were referred to our colposcopy clinic. Forty one women underwent colposcopy directed biopsy, endocervical curettage, endometrial sampling and cervical conization to determine the cytologic and histologic correlations of AGC on pap smears.
Results: A total of 122 women with AGC Pap smear were found. Only 41 women accepted to participate in the study and followed the workup procedures. The mean age of the patients was 46.92 ±11.48 years (range, 23-80 years). Of these patients 13 patients (31.7%) were post menopause and 28 patients (68.2%) were in reproductive age. We found 13 (31.7%) significant pathologic findings including 4 (9.7%) high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HG-SIL), 3(7.3%) low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LG-SIL), 2(4.8%) Endometrial hyperplasia, 1(2.4%) Endometrial adenocarci-noma, 1(2.4%) adenocarcinoma of cervix, 1(2.4%) squamous cell carcinoma of cervix and 1(2.4%) papillary serous tumor of ovary. There was not any significant difference in the prevalence of significant pathologic findings and subtype of squamous or adenomatous lesions between pre and postmenopausal group.
Conclusion: AGC on Pap smear was associated with a clinically significant diagnosis in approximately one third of our cases. The women with a diagnosis of AGC on cervicovaginal smear are needed to be evaluated at least with colposcopy, endocervical and endometrial curettage. Clinicians should be careful about the significance of AGC in pap smears.

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Background: Tumor diathesis (TD) refers to the granular proteinaceous precipitates on the slide surface of cytologic (Pap) smears. Found in the background of smears from some, but not all, invasive carcinoma cases, TD is present in the majority of smears from large cell nonkeratinizing carcinoma. It is more pronounced than keratinizing SCC also is almost always present in small cell carcinoma.  Smears from patients with adenocarcinoma are frequently associated with dense inflammatory and fresh blood exudates and less often there is a recognizable tumor diathesis.

Methods: To determine the prevalence of TD in cervicovaginal smears from patients with uterine cervix carcinoma, cytologic smears and histologic slides of 46 patients with histologically-confirmed uterine cervix carcinoma were reviewed for the presence or absence of TD, red blood cells and neutrophils on cytologic smears, as well as depth of invasion, histologic types and grade of differentiation of tumor on histologic slides.

Results: TD was identified in 28 smears (60.9%), 18 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (62.1%), seven patients with adenocarcinoma (58.3%), two patients with adenosquamous carcinoma (66.7%) and one patient with endometrial carcinoma that involved the uterine cervix. TD was seen in smears from four (33.3%) patients with uterine cervix carcinoma with invasion <5 mm and 17 (65.4%) carcinomas with invasion >5mm. However, some of the patients with invasive carcinoma lacked TD on the cytologic smears. Red blood cells were identified on 16 (34.8%) smears.

Conclusions: Although TD is the hallmark of invasive carcinoma of the cervix on cytological smears, there have been few studies performed on it. We found that tumors with greater depth of invasion and reduced differentiation are associated with TD cytologic smears. TD was absent in some cases, particularly in micro-invasive carcinoma. This study reinforced what has been recognized from other studies.

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Background: The papanicolaou (pap) smear has been used to screen cervical cancer since 1940. Recently, a number of new technologies have been developed to improve the detection of cervical cancer and its precursors. However, there is substantial controversy about whether the new tests offer meaningful advantages over the conventional pap smear. Ideally, these new tests will increase the early detection of meaningful pap smear abnormalities, reduce the number of unsatisfactory smears and provide fewer ambiguous results.

Methods: In this prospective study the result of Liquid- based cytology smears (Liquid prep method) compared with conventional pap smears in terms of adequacy and ASC diagnosis in 289 patients in pathology department of mirza kochak khan hospital (Tehran, 2005- 2006). The smears were interpreted based on Bethesda system 2001.

Results: In conventional pap smear method, the number of occasions of unsatisfactory smear was 24(5%). In Liquid- based cytology method 66(22.8%) smears were unsatisfactory, In which difference between unsatisfactory groups were statistically significant (p<0.05), Also ASC diagnosis in conventional method 5(1.8%) as compared with Liquid- based cytology 6(2.1%), was not statistically significant (p>0.05).

Conclusions: There was no significant difference between two methods in term of ASC diagnosis but in conventional method adequacy of specimen was significantly better as compared with this Liquid- based cytology method.

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800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background: Cancer of uterine cervix is the second cause of death in women in the world and the most common cause in developing countries. Because the majority of women with invasive cervical cancer of the uterine have not previously undergone screening, many clinicians assume that Pap smear has a high degree of accuracy but problems such as false positive and false negative interpretations, as well as interobserver variability have questioned its validity.
Methods : We retrieved 162 positive cervical smears that had been originally interpreted as ASC-US, ASC-H, LSIL, HSIL, SCC, AGC and adenocarcinoma from the cytology archives of Women's Hospital in Tehran, Iran. The slides were rescreened by an experienced pathologist and reclassified in the mentioned categories. All the 162 slides were reviewed by three more pathologists in a blind study using interpretative criteria utilized in their daily routine to evaluate interobserver reproducibility. To increase the level of interobserver agreement, the diagnostic categories were reduced to squamous Vs. glandular abnormalities and invasive (SCC and adenocarcinoma) Vs. non-invasive abnormalities.
Results : The results obtained in this study indicated slight interobserver agreement (k=0.26). The most reproducible category was the invasive category (SCC in addition to adenocarcinoma) and the least agreement was seen for HSIL (k=0.19).
Conclusion: This study showed that reproducibility of cytological interpretation of conventional Pap smears varies among interpretive categories and the overall interobserver agreement is slight. Since convening on the reduction of interobserver discrepancy in Pap smear interpretations necessitates more reliable information of interpretative variability, larger studies need to be undertaken.

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Background: Cervical cancer is known to be preventable because of long period of pre-invasive stage, availability of screening tools, and effective treatments for early invasive cervical lesions. Screening is main measures to prevent the disease and Pap smear is a screening strategy for cervical cancer. Current paper aimed to evaluate levels of awareness and practice regarding Pap smear screening among women aged between 20 to 65 years in Tehran (Iran). Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical study conducted in Tehran City of Iran in 2015 at Firoozgar Hospital. The research population included all married, widowed and divorced women aged 20-65 years. Data analysis was performed using the Pearson correlation and Student’s t-tests in SPSS, ver. 23 (Chicago, IL, USA). Results: Among 90 individuals who have fill questionnaire completely, 66.6% subjects had Pap smear tests. 40% of the individuals aged between 30 to 39 and the education level is distributed equally between Intermediate, Diploma and graduate and only 3 percent of them, continue their education to higher level. There was a significant relationship between the awareness of Pap smear and educational level (of both wives and husbands). The people who have graduate degree, have the best awareness. Working women revealed higher level of awareness about Pap smear. Shame and fear of taking the cancer were the most common reasons which lead to avoidance in doing the test by the women, while the most encouraging factors for performing the test were the information mostly provided by physicians and after that, the information provided by friends. Conclusion: The awareness of Pap smear test which was measured by weighting different questions in the questionnaire by experts, prove that the women aged above 39, have an average level of awareness of Pap smear test. Due to high prevalence of cervical cancer and prolonged pre invasive course, role of Pap smear for early diagnosis necessitate the use of proper and inexpensive instructional methods to increase awareness in women about cervical cancer and preventive strategies.