DIAGNOSTIC AGREEMENT IN CERVICAL CYTOLOGY

Objective. To evaluate the diagnostic agreement in Papanicolaou of pat hologists and cytotechnologists using kappa values for concordancy. Me thods. The diagnostic variation was estimated in 20 gynecological cyto logy (Pap) specimens by 30 pathologists and 7 cytotechnologists attend ing the XXXVII Congress of the Mexican Association of Pathologists in 1994. Results. The best concordancy versus an expert was in tumoral di athesis (pathologists' kappa = 0.36; cytotechnologists' kappa = 0.35) and koilocytos (pathologists' kappa = 0.55; cytotechnologists' kappa = 0.36). The least concordancy was observed in anisonucleosis (patholog ists' kappa = 0.11; cytotechnologists' kappa = 0.02), nuclear hyperchr omasia (pathologists' and cytotechnologists' kappa = 0.11) and dyskera tosis (pathologists' kappa = 0.11; cytotechnologists' kappa = 0.16). T he kappa values for cervical neoplasia showed poor agreement, and in i nvasive cervical cancer it was 0.30. Conclusions. There was a low conc ordancy of Pap diagnosis in the study. It is convenient to try to impr ove the concordancy of cytologic diagnosis in Mexico. One strategy cou ld be the use of a uniform diagnostic criteria and the adoption of a s ingle nomenclature.