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Published on: July 25, 2017
Cytological evaluation correlates poorly with histological diagnosis of vulvar neoplasias
Victoria L Bae-Jump1, Maureen Bauer, Linda Van Le
1Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of OB/GYN, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7570, USA.
Objective:
To determine whether cytological smears of the vulva correlate with vulvar biopsies of vulvar intraepithelial neoplasias (VINs).
Materials And Methods:
A retrospective chart review (1995-2000) was performed to identify cases of VIN and vulvar carcinoma and to correlate vulvar Pap smears with biopsy results.
Results:
Four hundred vulvar Pap smears were identified. Fifty of these patients had concomitant vulvar biopsies, and these cases constitute our study group. Twenty-two of these 50 women had biopsy-proven VIN or vulvar carcinoma. Only 7 (32%) of 22 patients with biopsy-proven disease had a vulvar Pap smear significant for VIN or vulvar carcinoma. The kappa statistic was 0.30 (95% CI=0.08-0.52), indicating poor agreement between vulvar cytology and biopsy results.
Conclusions:
Vulvar cytological evaluation did not correlate well with tissue diagnosis of VIN; and thus, our findings do not support the use of vulvar cytology in the clinical management of VIN.
