RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Liquid-based cervical cytology has been developed as an alternative for conventional Papanicolaou cervical cytology. AIM: The aim of this study was to determine the quality assurance of liquid-based cervical cytology. METHOD: 4573 cervical cytology smears were classified according to the Bethesda (2001) system. Human papilloma virus infection was detected and subtyped from reflex test using real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: 4573 smears were classified according to the Bethesda (2001) system. Negative diagnosis was made in 2323 cases (50.8%), non neoplastic in 2017 cases (44.1%), and positive for intraepithelial lesions or malignancy in 233 cases (5.1%). Unsatisfactory smear for diagnosis was found in 43 cases (0.9%), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion in 87 cases (1.9%), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion in 24 cases (0.5%), and carcinoma in 23 cases (0.5%). Fifty-nine of the cases were histologically verified and 4 falsely negative cases were detected. The sensitivity, specificity and the positive predictive value were 93.2%, 100% and 100%, respectively. Compared to an identical time periods of the previous three years, the low- and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion increased from 0.82% to 2.51%. Eighty one human papilloma virus tests were performed with a positive predictive value of 99%. CONCLUSIONS: The auditing values of the liquid-bases cervical cytology results meet the proposed threshold values. Liquid-bases cervical cytology is an alternative cervical cytology and it seems to be significantly better than conventional Papanicolaou cervical cytology in all parameters.
