ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To compare the information obtained of the percentage of improvement declared orally with the improvement marked in the visual analogical scale (VAS) in patients under and over 65 years of age. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Ninety-five individuals with acute shoulder pain (enthesitis) were evaluated. The subjects were requested to mark the pain intensity in the VAS before a treatment with corticosteroid injection in the shoulder and were evaluated again through the VAS one week after the procedure. They were also requested to declare orally the pain intensity. Then, the information was compared between patients aged under and over 65 years of age. RESULTS: 29.8% of those younger than 65 years, and 60.95% of those older than that age presented more than 10% difference between orally stated and calculated pain relief percentage based on the VSA. CONCLUSION: The difference between the orally stated and the calculated pain relief percentage based on the VSA was significantly higher in the group of those older than 65 years. This finding proved that the VAS is a poor method to evaluate pain relief in the senior population.
Comparar las informaciones obtenidas del porcentaje verbal de mejoría declarada verbalmente con la escala visual analógica (EVA) en personas con edad menor y mayor o igual de 65 años.
Subject(s)
Pain Measurement , Shoulder Pain , Adrenal Cortex Hormones/therapeutic use , Aged , Humans , Shoulder Pain/diagnosis , Shoulder Pain/drug therapyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Cytology smears and guided biopsies are the most widely used diagnostic standards for cervical cancer (CC) screening in the developing countries. AIM: To evaluate the performance of conventional cytology in estimating the presence and grade of cervical disease against the reference standard of histopathology. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: After primary screening for CC, directed biopsies were performed and compared with histopathology results. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Papanicolaou (Pap) smears and biopsies from 3194 women in the age group of 14-98 years were included. Cytology results were provided by doctors who performed the cervical biopsies. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The accuracy of Pap smear was measured by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) calculated using the statistical analysis program PSPP 0.7.8. RESULTS: The sensitivity of conventional cytology (Pap smear) for women with low-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or less serious lesions (CIN1-) was 93% and specificity was 73%. The sensitivity and specificity of cytology for women with high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or cancer (CIN2+) was 64% and 84%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Cytology is a sufficiently sensitive test for detection of cervical lesions and can be used as a primary testing tool to triage.
