Clinical Usefulness of New Cervicography in Screening of Cervical Cancer

Lee, Yong Seok; Kim, Dong Ho

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
This study was performed to evaluate the usefulness of New cervicography by comparing cervicographic finding with Papanicolaou smear and result of colposcopically directed biopsy.
METHODS
This study group consisted of 189 patients who visited the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chung-Ang University Pildong Hospital from September 1998 to August 1999. All women simultaneously underwent Papanicolaou smear and New cervicography. If either method was positive, the patient was referred for colposcopically directed biopsy.
RESULTS
The New cervicography was significantly more sensitive than the Papanicolaou smear(92.2% vs 60.8%, p<0.01), whereas the Papanicolaou smear was significantly more specific than the New cervicography(99.3% vs 75.0%, p<0.05). The false positive rate of New cervicography was 75%, significantly higher than 0.7% of Papanicolaou smear. There was no significant difference between the negative predictive value of cervicography and Papanicolaou smear. When New cervicography and Papanicolaou smear were used together, the sensitivity was significantly higher than Papanicolaou smear used alone(98.1% vs 60.8%, p<0.01) and false negative rate was significantly lower than Papanicolaou smear(1.9% vs 39.2%, p<0.01). However the specificity, positive predictive value of the combined test were lower than Papanicolaou smear.
CONCLUSION
Cervicography is one of the Papanicolaou smear adjunctive tests and a useful method to detect cervical cancer. Our study confirms the previously suspected low sensitivity of Papanicolaou smear and demonstrate that cervicography is more sensitive than Papanicolaou smear and less specific. From the above results, when New cervicography and Papanicolaou smear were used together, the detection rate of cervical cancer will be increased more easily since the cases missed by one method may be picked up by another.