Genest D R, Dean B, Lee K R, Sheets E, Crum C P, Cibas E S
Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass 02115, USA.
Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1998 Apr;122(4):338-41.
To evaluate whether different qualifications of a cytologic diagnosis of "atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance" predict a greater or lesser likelihood of cervical pathology.
Comparison of different cytologic qualifications of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance with the frequency of significant cervical disease as documented by tissue biopsy.
Four hundred, fifty-two consecutive Papanicolaou smears showing atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (diagnosed by nine cytopathologists) in women who had undergone cervical biopsy within the previous 90 days at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass (January-June 1995).
The histopathologic diagnosis of squamous intraepithelial lesion of the cervix.
The 452 smears were qualified as "favor reactive" (22%), "not otherwise specified" (42%), "favor squamous intraepithelial lesion" (29%), and "favor high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion" (6%). High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions and total squamous intraepithelial lesions were pathologically confirmed by cervical biopsy in 3.6% and 6% of the favor reactive smears, in 11% and 21% of the not otherwise specified smears, in 12% and 30% of the favor squamous intraepithelial lesion smears, and in 53% and 59% of the favor high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion smears. Significant associations were seen between a favor reactive smear and a benign finding on cervical biopsy (94%, P = .04) and between a favor high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion smear and a biopsy that showed a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (53%, P = .00001).
Qualifying atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance stratifies women into different risk groups for squamous intraepithelial lesion. It is reasonable for physicians to make patient management decisions based, at least in part, on such qualifications.
