[Preliminary report on the application of colposcopy in screening of cervical carcinoma]

Four hundred and fifty six women were examined by colposcopy in a high incidence area of cervical cancer from May 1988 to June 1990. In the 330 evaluable cases, colposcopic impression correlated accurately with the histologic diagnosis (including difference of one degree) in 95.2% of the cases, while cytology in 71.2% only. Directed biopsies under colposcopy were compared with surgical specimen of 36 patients and the diagnostic accurate rate was 97.2%. The confirmation rate between colposcopy and endocervical curettage was 89.2%. Among 79 patients with cervical cancer, the results obtained by colposcopy and cytology did not show a statistically significant difference (P = 0.9691). However, colposcopy was superior to cytology with regard to the sensitivity of detection of early cervical cancer (88.5% vs 54.4%). When colposcopy was combined with cytology, the diagnostic accurate rate of cervical cancer was further improved (94.9%). This study demonstrated that colposcopy is another reliable method for the diagnosis of cervical cancer and precancerous lesions. The combination of colposcopy with cytology may not only improve the diagnostic accuracy, but also reduce their false negative rate. We would suggest application of colposcopy plus endocervical curettage combined with histopathological examination as an effective approach to improve the quality of screening of cervical cancers.