Spectrum of lesions in papanicolaou smears: An institutional study

Introduction: Carcinoma Cervix is considered to be leading cancer amongst women. Periodic Papanicolaou Smears (PAP) screening is the simplest way to diagnosed precancerous lesion. Factor such as ignorance, poverty, poorly developed public health care delivery system put women in urban slums at a disadvantage of receiving any health screening activity. Aim: To know the prevalence of epithelial cell abnormalities of the cervix among the patient of various age groups. Materials and methods: PAP smear collected during cervical cancer screening at R L Jalappa hospital and research center between January 2018 and June 2018 were retrieved from the laboratory records of hospital. 1596 PAP smear results were collected and analyzed with SPSS version 22.40(2.5%) reports were excluded from analysis. Results: 1092 cases (68.4%) had normal findings. 11 women required multiple PAP smears examination. Conclusion: In India, lack of awareness, cultural barriers and economic factors prevent women from obtaining health services. Hence, a regular Pap screening programme is very much essential to detect the pathological changes of the cervix. In this study there were 92 cases (2.04%) of abnormal epithelial lesions. About 62% of the total cases were above 30 years. Here LSIL was most common epithelial lesion followed by HSIL and then ASCUS. Clinical Significance: Women initiate cervical cancer screening late in their life which could be the reason for higher incidence of cervical epithelial abnormalities in later age groups.