Histologic Correlation of Atypical Glandular Cells in Cervical Smears

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The study evaluated the histologic correlation and clinical significance of atypical glandular cells (AGC) detected either on conventional smears (CS) or liquid-based cytology (LBC). METHODS: Two hundred and seventy-seven (0.11%) of 261,925 cervical smears were interpreted as AGC by the Bethesda system 2001 from January 2006 to December 2008. Cytohistological correlation was performed on 192 cases. RESULTS: The prevalence of AGC was 0.07% and 0.13% for CS and LBC smears, respectively. Distribution of AGC subcategories were as follows atypical endometrial cells 53.8%, atypical endocervical cells 22.7%, atypical glandular cells 19.5%, atypical endocervical cells favoring neoplasia 2.2%, and atypical glandular cells favoring neoplasia 1.8%. Fifty-nine (27.4%) of 192 patients were confirmed as having clinically significant lesions comprising endometrial adenocarcinoma (12.5%), endometrial hyperplasia (6.0%), cervical adenocarcinoma (2.3%), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) (1.9%), low-grade SIL (1.9%), adenocarcinoma in situ (1.4%), or ovarian metastasis (1.4%). Conclusion: Compared with CS, LBC was presently associated with a higher prevalence of AGC. Histologic follow-up showed a very low HSIL rate compared to other studies. Endometrial adenocarcinoma was the most common malignant lesion detected because of increasing prevalence of endometrial adenocarcinoma, concentration on endometrial cytology, and introduction of LBC.