Mf. Lachman et C. Cavallocalvanese, QUALIFICATION OF ATYPICAL SQUAMOUS CELLS OF UNDETERMINED SIGNIFICANCEIN AN INDEPENDENT LABORATORY - IS IT USEFUL OR SIGNIFICANT, American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 179(2), 1998, pp. 421-429
OBJECTIVES: Correlation of cervical smears and biopsy samples emphasiz
es the significance of atypical squamous cells of undetermined signifi
cance as a diagnostic category. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective study (O
ctober 1, 1995-March 21, 1997) was performed on all Papanicolaou smear
s diagnosed at DIANON Systems, Inc (Stratford, Conn). RESULTS: During
this period 1551 patients with Papanicolaou smears had subsequent cerv
ical biopsies performed within 90 days of cytologic sampling. There we
re 560 diagnoses of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significan
ce. Tissue specimen results were positive in 203 cases (36.2%) and neg
ative in 357 cases (63.8%). Of the positive biopsy results after a sme
ar with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, 109 show
ed low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions and 94 showed high-grade
squamous intraepithelial lesions. CONCLUSIONS: This study, the larges
t cytologic and histologic correlation of atypical squamous cells of u
ndetermined significance, demonstrates that a significant percentage o
f smears with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance rep
resent squamous intraepithelial lesions and that qualification of atyp
ical squamous cells of undetermined significance as reactive or dyspla
stic is useful and; should serve as a guide for patient management.