ABSTRACT
@#BACKGROUND. Uterine cervical cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. In our country, cervical cancer is second most common cancer in women. Uterine cervical smear (Papanicolaou test) remains an effective and widely used method for early detection of precancerous and cancerous lesions. Since 2002, the cervical smear was introduced to the clinical practice of our country. However, there is no study to performed external quality assurance of cervical smear until now. MATERIALS AND METHODS. We selected 20 glass slides of uterine cervical smear, the diagnosis was approved by histopathology. Each chosen slides were evaluated by four cytologists of A, B, C, D hospitals with hidden clinical information, independently. RESULTS. The sensitivity of A, B, C and D hospitals were 87.5%, 93.3%, 93.3%, and 93.3%, respectively. The specificity of A, B, C and D hospitals was 85.7%, 85.7%, 75%, and 66.6%, respectively. The diagnostic concordance of A, B, C and D was 70%, 75%, 50%, and 55%, respectively. The agreement of cytological diagnosis was moderate (kappa = 0.55), moderate (kappa = 0.43), fair (kappa = 0.37), and fair (kappa = 0.33) in A, B, C, and D hospitals, respectively. CONCLUSION: The external quality assurance in cytopathology is needed in Mongolia. The diagnostic concordance method would be applicable in our country to improve diagnostic agreement.