Prevalence of Abnormal Cervical Smear at Yashfeen Gynaecological Clinic Tripo

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, with 2.3 million prevalent cases and 510.000 incident
cases documented each year. Pap smear screening identifies abnormal premalignant cells at the cervical transformation zone; this resulted in reduction of cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates by 70% in developed countries.
The study conducted to determine the incidence of abnormal Pap smears among gynaecological patients at Yashfeen
clinic in Tripoli. A retrospective study included all Pap smears reported between 1st January 2009- 31st December
2012 for Libyan women, at Yashfeen Clinic in Tripoli. All cytological smears were collected by Ayre’s spatula and
slides were evaluated at Elzawia laboratories by consultant cytologist. A total of 507 cervical cytology specimens
were reviewed and classified according to Bethesda system. A total of 507 Pap smear reports were reviewed from
patients aged between (19-70) years. 493 (97%) were found satisfactory for analysis, and of these 130 (26%) were
normal, while 344 (70%) had benign cellular changes in the form of inflammatory smears. There were 19 (4%)
abnormal smears with epithelial cell abnormalities, of which 14 (3%) had atypical squamous cells of undetermined
significance (ASCUS), and 5 (1%) had low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL). There were no cases
of atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance (AGUS) or high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions
(HSIL) or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) among this sample of smears. The prevalence of (LSIL) and (ASCUS)
is low in this study. Overall, 4% of routinely screened women were found to have an abnormal cervical smear.