Liquid Based Pap Smears for Detection of Infective Organisms in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: Bacterial vaginosis (BV), vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) and trichomonal vaginitis (TV) are the most common etiologies of infective vaginitis. The Papanicolaou (Pap) smear is a standard screening test for cervical precancerous lesions that can also be useful to identify infective organisms. This study aimed to identify the causativeorganisms for cervico-vaginal infection in liquid-based Pap smears. Methods: This study was a cross sectional study and included 370 liquid based Pap smears with infective organisms. Results: The most prevalent cervico-vaginal infection was BV, which was detected in 259 (70%) of the cases, followed by VVC in 64 (17.3%) and TV in 25 (6.8%) cases.Women aged 30-39 years were mostlyaffected. Conclusion: The present study shows the usefulness of cervical Pap smear in diagnosis of infective vaginitisother than epithelial cell abnormalities.