High-resolution anoscopy in women with cervical neoplasia

To describe high-resolution anoscopy (HRA) findings and compare them with histopathology results.

In a cross-sectional, observational study performed between December 2008 and December 2009, women receiving care at a center in Recife, Brazil, after a histopathologic diagnosis of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or cervical cancer were screened for anal neoplasia by HRA. Patients with anal lesions were divided into groups A (metaplasia and/or human papillomavirus infection) and B (anal intraepithelial neoplasia [AIN]). Patients with squamous cell atypia in group A and all patients in group B underwent histopathologic analysis. Agreement between HRA and histopathology findings was estimated for group B.

HRA was done in 324 women, 204 (63.0%) of whom had anal lesions. Overall, 169 cases (82.8%) were classified as group A and 35 (17.2%) as group B. Histopathologic data were obtained for 28 of the 35 group B cases. Histopathology was suggestive of AIN in 19 (67.9%), resulting in a κ coefficient of 0.45 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.26-0.65; P<0.001). Relative to histopathology, HRA had sensitivity of 57.6% (95% CI 40.8%-72.7%), specificity of 86.1% (95% CI 75.7%-92.5%), positive likelihood ratio of 4.1 (95% CI 3.1-5.5), negative likelihood ratio of 0.5 (95% CI 0.4-0.5), and accuracy of 76.5% (95% CI 67.2%-83.8%).

HRA findings can be systematized, reducing the subjectivity of interpretation.