The accuracy of colposcopically directed biopsy in patients with suspected intraepithelial neoplasia of the cervix.

We compared the histological diagnoses of premalignant/malignant lesions of the cervix obtained by examining colposcopically directed biopsy material from 201 outpatients with those obtained by examining tissues from a subsequent, more extensive operative procedure. In all, 98 per cent of operative diagnoses were never more than one degree in advance of diagnoses made by colposcopic biopsy. In all seven patients with invasive or microinvasive squamous carcinoma, the lesion was suspect at colposcopy and confirmed by directed biopsy.