Comparative study of the results from conventional cervico-vaginal oncotic cytology and liquid-based cytology.

OBJECTIVE To compare two oncotic cervical cytology techniques, the conventional and the liquid-based cytology, in low risk patients for uterine cervical cancer. METHODS Comparative prospective study with 100 patients who came to their annual gynecological exam, and were submitted simultaneously to both techniques. We used the McNemar test, with a significance level of p < 0.05 to compare the results obtained related to adequacy of the smear quality, descriptive diagnosis prevalence, guided biopsy confirmation and histology. RESULTS Adequacy of the smear was similar for both methods. The quality with squamocolumnar junction in 93% of conventional cytology and in 84% of the liquid-based cytology had statistical significance. As for the diagnosis of atypical cells they were detected in 3% of conventional cytology and in 10% of liquid-based cytology (p = 0.06). Atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance were the most prevalent abnormality. The liquid-based cytology performance was better when compared with colposcopy (guided biopsy), presenting sensitivity of 66.7% and specificity of 100%. There was no cytological and histological concordance for the conventional cytology. CONCLUSIONS Liquid-based cytology had a better performance to diagnose atypical cells and the cytohistological concordance was higher than in the conventional cytology.