Abstract

This study is based on women who participated in cervical cancer screening and on 390 women referred from the screened group for colposcopy. The study analyzed the frequency of atypia, CIN and koilocytosis and evaluated the efficiency of cytologic vs. histologic diagnosis. The clinical expression of the koilocytotic lesions and the rate of infected partners were evaluated. In the screened population the prevalence of smears with atypia and CIN was 3.2% and that of koilocytosis 0.5%. In the colposcopic group the frequency of koilocytosis in the histologic sections was 98% compared to 18% of the smears. The koilocytotic lesions were mostly multicentric, subclinical and asymptomatic and often associated with normal cytology. The rate of infected partners of women with normal smears and non-symptomatic vulvar lesions was low (15%), increased if smears were abnormal (30%), and was highest when the partner had gross condylomata (89%). As to atypia and CIN, the rate of undegraded smears was 18%, false-negative smears 8%, undergraded colposcopic biopsies 33%, false-negative colposcopic biopsies 3%, and the false-negative rate of combined cytology and colposcopy was less that 1%. Colposcopy is recommended for unclassified CIN and CIN 2–3 repeat smear for atypia and CIN 1 and combined cytology and colposcopy for condylomata.