Cell Abnormality in Pap Smear in Women with Postmenopausal Bleeding

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University.

2 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University.

Abstract

Cancer cervix is a preventable and curable disease due to effective screening methods. Uterine cervix is ideal for screening due to easy accessibility for inspection, palpation and exfoliative cytology. The Pap smear is a screening test for cervical cancer, and with appropriate follow-up it can reduce cervical cancer incidence by up to 80%. This study includes fifty peri and postmenopausal women, cervical smears were taken in the Out-patient Clinic of Gynecology and Obestetrics Department and Pap stain was used for each sample, and the criteria of Bethesda (2014) was used for the diagnosis of each case. Bleeding was the main complaint in 92% patient and the remaining 8% complained from vaginal discharge and itching. Thirty nine patients were negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy (non-neoplastic), eight showed neoplastic changes, and 3 samples were insufficient for cytological interpretation. Two out of the 8 cases showed neoplastic lesions were atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), two diagnosed as atypical squamous cells cannot exclude HSIL (ASC-H), 3 were high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) and one cases had features of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Six out of 39 samples showed only pure atrophy, three showed follicular cervicitis, three had features suggestive of Tichomonas vaginalis infection, one diagnosed as HSV infection, one showed bacterial vaginosis and eleven cases showed nonspecific inflammation. Non-neoplastic cases included also six cases showed metaplastic changes and eight had normal cytological findings. Conclusion: cervical smears is important in early detection of cervical carcinoma and its precursors in Sohag community as an easy, costless, accessible, and reliable manner and Bethesda system (2014) is beneficial for accurate diagnosis.          

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