The Usefulness of Cervicovaginal Cytology as a Primary Screening Test.

Abstract

We evaluated the usefulness of cervicovaginal cytology as a primary screening test by analyzing the cytologic and histological diagnoses of 2,254 women. Cervicovaginal cytology had 93.0% sensitivity, 86.1% specificity, 88.2% positive predictive value, and 91.7% of negative predictive value. Cervicovaginal cytology as a primary screening test showed much higher specificity but slightly lower sensitivity than HPV DNA testing. However, the sensitivity of cervicovaginal cytology will be improved continuously due to the development of liquid-based cytology. We regard cervicovaginal cytology as a good primary screening test for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or carcinoma.