RESUMO
UNLABELLED: The city of Recife, northeastern Brazil, is reported to have the highest incidence of cervical cancer worldwide (83.2/100000 women). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of Hybrid Capture I (HC I) in cervical cancer detection and some risk factors in Recife. METHOD: Cervical scrapes for HC I analysis followed by colposcopy were collected from 140 women (70 with cervical cancer and 70 with normal cervix) from three screening services in Recife. RESULT: HC I sensitivity and specificity were 82.9 and 41.4%, respectively. The odds ratios for cervical cancer when Gesta > or = 5 and vaginal parity > or = 4 were, respectively, 5.30 and 4.27. CONCLUSION: HC I is a moderately sensitive method to detect cervical cancer, but it does not seem to be useful as a primary screening tool for it's low specificity. Early pregnancy, high Gesta/Para and living in rural areas were important local risk factors.
