VALUE OF WET MOUNT AND CERVICAL CULTURES AT THE TIME OF CERVICAL CYTOLOGY IN ASYMPTOMATIC WOMEN

Objective: To correlate Papanicolaou smear findings with the wet mount and cervical culture results in asymptomatic patients, and to review the value of doing wet mount and/or cervical cultures in these patient s at the time of Papanicolaou smear. Methods: Asymptomatic women prese nting for routine Papanicolaou smears at Sinai Samaritan Medical Cente r, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, between January 1991 and January 1994 were st udied by preparing wet mount (saline and potassium hydroxide preparati ons) and cervical cultures for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gon orrhoeae at the same visit. Fisher exact test and Pearson X(2) statist ics were applied. Results: Nine hundred sixty-three patients were stud ied. Nearly 50% of our asymptomatic young urban women had a vaginal an d/or cervical infection. Papanicolaou smears with inflammation were as sociated with bacterial vaginosis (P < .0001), excess white blood cell s (P < .0001), trichomoniasis (P < .0001), abnormal wet mounts in gene ral (P < .0001), and positive cervical cultures for C trachomatis and/ or N gonorrhoeae (P < .001). Papanicolaou smears showing atypical cell s of undetermined significance were associated with bacterial vaginosi s (P < .001) and abnormal wet mounts in general (P < .03). Seventy-fiv e percent of patients with positive cervical cultures had abnormal wet mounts. Eighty-three percent of the patients whose initial Papanicola ou smear showed inflammation and whose initial wet mount was abnormal had a normal Papanicolaou smear when the wet mount became normal. Conc lusion: Preparing wet mounts at the time of Papanicolaou smear in asym ptomatic young urban women will help in the interpretation of minimall y abnormal smears and will probably decrease the need for repeat smear s and colposcopy. Simultaneous cervical cultures would not add much in formation for such interpretation.