Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: May | Volume: 9 | Issue: 5 | Pages: 34-40
Comparative Evaluation of Results of Pap Smears and HPV Hybrid Capture 2 Performed On Cervical Samples Before and After Application of Acetic Acid
Dr Anand Kavita V1, Dr Mishra Gauravi A1, Dr Pimple Sharmila A1, Dr Deodhar Kedar K2, Dr Kelkar Rohini S3, Ms Dighe Swati4, Dr. Vasundhara Y Kulkarni1
*PhD Scholar, 1Dept of Preventive Oncology, 2Dept. of Pathology, 3Dept of Microbiology,
4Dept of Cytopathology,
Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai.
Corresponding Author: Dr Mishra Gauravi A
ABSTRACT
Aim: To assess the feasibility of triaging VIA (Visual inspection with Acetic Acid) positive women with a test with higher specificity, either Pap or HPV DNA test (Human Papilloma Virus) in the same sitting at community level. This strategy if successful shall prevent unnecessary referrals to tertiary care in resource constrained settings and also increase the programmatic yield.
Objective: To investigate, whether the 5% acetic acid, used in VIA screening will compromise the cellularity of Pap test or results of HPV DNA test.
Materials/ Methods: Fifty women were randomised to either HPV test arm or Cytology test arm. The 25 women in HPV DNA arm underwent a HPV DNA HC2 test before and five minutes after application of 5% acetic acid. In cytology arm 25 women underwent Pap test before and five minutes after application of 5% acetic acid.
Conclusions: According to results of this study, 5% acetic acid affected the cellularity of cytology smears and may affect interpretation of dysplastic smears. HPV DNA test results remained unaffected by acetic acid. These results suggest that HPV HC2 may perhaps be a better triage test for VIA positive women. But this needs confirmation with a larger sample size. These findings are extremely crucial in the scenario that National Cancer Control Programme in many low-income countries including India are adopting VIA based screening and there is unavailability of resources to handle the large number of false positives emerging from positive VIA test.
Key words: Acetic acid, Pap smear, HPV DNA test.