[Does cytological screening have a place in sexually active teenagers?]

The aim of the present investigation is to determine what is the place of cytological screening of the uterine cervix in sexually active teenagers.

The study was based on 83 girls aged between 14 and 19 (mean age 18.13 years) without childbirth in history, who visited our clinic with non-specific gynecological complaints. All patients were submitted to brush cytology applying the classical method and classifying the smears according to the Bethesda system (1991).

A high adequacy of the cytologic smears was found, reaching up to 98.8% and the following distribution of the findings according to the various criteria was observed: cells within normal limits in 34.1% of the patients, benign cellular changes due to reactive changes associated with inflammation in 34.1%, atypical epithelial cell abnormalities of undetermined significance in 18.4%, low grade SIL with HPV in 11.0%, without HPV in 1.2% and high grade SIL in 1.2% of thr patients. The role of cytological screening in sexually active adolescent girls is discussed in the context of the obtained results.