Assessment of Cervical Cytological Data in Albanian Females

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Cervical cancer is one of the most common female malignancies with high mortality ratesin developing countries. Our purpose was to determine the prevalence of cervical cytological abnormalitiesby cervical cytology (CC) and the analysis of risk factors in Albanian population. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: Atotal of 5,416 conventional pap smear tests collected between January 2009 and January 2012 from TiranaUniversity Hospital Obstetrics-Gynecology “Queen Geraldine” were retrospectively analyzed. <br/><b>Results</b>: A totalof 258 (4.8%) cases had epithelial abnormalities. The numbers and rates were as follows: atypical squamous cellof undetermined significance (ASCUS; n=150 [2.76%]); atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance(AGUS; n=8 [0.14%]); low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL; n=87 [1.6%]); high- grade squamousintraepithelial lesion (HSIL; n=10 [0.18%]); and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC; n=3 [0.05%]). <br/><b>Conclusions</b>:The prevalence of cervical cytological abnormality in our study was 4.8%. A larger community-based study mayestablish the exact prevalence of malignant and premalignant lesions, so as to plan for future screening.