Visual inspection with acetic acid and cytology as screening methods for cervical lesions in Cameroon.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the accuracy of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) as a screening method for cervical lesions. METHODS: VIA and cytological smears were carried out on the cervices of non-pregnant women aged 30-60 years with no previous history of cervical cancer. Cervices with aceto white lesions or positive Pap smears, and one in ten negative cervices (control), were biopsied. RESULTS: 5010 women were enrolled, 4813 (96.1%) were screened. 4767 (99.%) had adequate cytology smears. 574 (11.9%) had colposcopy. 1743 biopsies were obtained of which 528 were controls. The sensitivity of VIA was 70.4% versus 47.7% for Pap smear. VIA specificity was 77.6% versus 94.2% for Pap smear; PPV for VIA was 44.0% versus 67.2% for Pap smear; and NPV for VIA was 91.3% versus 87.8% for Pap smear. CONCLUSIONS: VIA has acceptable test qualities and may in low resource settings be implemented as a large scale screening method.

[Cytologic aspects of cervical smears in optic microscopy in HIV seropositive women in Yaounde-Cameroon (Central Africa)]. / Aspects cytologiques du frottis cervical en microscopie optique chez les femmes VIH séropositives à Yaoundé-Cameroun (Afrique Centrale).

Cytologic aspects of cervical smears in HIV seropositive women in Yaounde-Cameroon (Central Africa). The aim of this study was to present the cytologic aspects of cervical smears performed on HIV seropositive Cameroonian women and analysed by light microscope. Seropositive women (case group) and seronegative women (control group) had cervical smears which were stained by the Papanicolaou Method and analysed by light microscope. For the 65 seropositive women, there were: 62 inflammatory smears (95.5%), 2 normal (3%) and 1 low grade squamous intra-epithelial lesion (1.5%). The 50 seronegative women had: 35 inflammatory smears (70%), 13 normal (26%) and 2 low grade squamous intra-epithelial lesion (4%). In both groups, inflammatory smears were predominant. They were more frequent in seropositive women. There was no significant difference between the percentage of squamous intra-epithelial lesions in seropositive women (1.5%) and seronegative women (4%). We were unable to detect, in Cameroonian seropositive women, any specific lesions on cervical smears predictive of HIV infection without serology.