Jj. Platzchristensen et al., BACTERIAL VAGINOSIS AND CERVICAL INTRAEPITHELIAL NEOPLASIA, Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica, 73(7), 1994, pp. 586-588
Methods. In an attempt to investigate an association between the findi
ng of clue cells in Papanicolaou-stained (PAP) smears and cervical int
raepithelial neoplasia (CIN), a total of 6150 smears from 1976 were re
-investigated. Results. Clue cells representing bacterial vaginosis we
re present in 10% of the PAP-smears. CIN II and III alone, as well as
all CIN cases, were more common in women with bacterial vaginosis (p <
0.001). Histologically CIN III/carcinoma in situ was found in nine pa
tients with and in 16 patients without bacterial vaginosis. The relati
ve risk of having CIN III/carcinoma in situ if the women had bacterial
vaginosis was 5.0 with 95% confidence interval of 2.2-11.6. Conclusio
ns. The possibility exists that bacterial vaginosis is in some way ass
ociated with the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, i.
e. as a cofactor to human papilloma virus. Therefore, bacterial vagino
sis must be taken in consideration in future studies on CIN.