Comparative study of Pap smear test and VIA test in cervical carcinoma screening among women aged over 20 years

Objective To compare the performance of VIA and Pap smear tests as screening tools in cervical carcinoma detection in women. Methods The prospective and retrospective study was conducted on 198 women. Cervical smears were collected with Ayres’s spatula. Acetic acid was used and the results were categorized as VIA positive and VIA negative. The Pap smear was reported according to the Bethesda system 2001. Cervical biopsy was done for all the cases. Results VIA was positive in 47.47% of the cases and Pap smear was positive in 39.89% of the cases. Among 198 cases, 61 (30, 8%) cases had cervical carcinoma. When we compared VIA and Pap smear tests, 94 cases were positive to VIA, and 61cases were confirmed positive with Pap smear. The sensitivity and specificity for VIA were 88.5% and 84.68%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for Pap smear were 80.45% and 91.89%, respectively. The sensitivity of VIA was higher than that of Pap smear. However, the specificity of VIA was low as compared to Pap smear. Conclusion VIA is a cost effective test and could be alternatively used with Pap smear in screening of cervical carcinoma but the Papanicolaou test is the most effective test for early detection of cervical carcinoma. Keywords: Pap smear test; VIA test; cervical carcinoma; women