ANALYSIS OF VISUAL INSPECTION OF CERVIX WITH ACETIC ACID WITH CONVENTIONAL PAP SMEAR AMONG LOCAL POPULATION OF PAKISTAN

Introduction: Cancers of female genital tract are of much concern worldwide. Among them, cancer of cervix is a major cause of death and disability. Objectives of the study: The main objective of the study is to analyze the visual inspection of Cervix with acetic acid with conventional Pap smear in cervical cancer patients. Material and methods: This descriptive study was conducted in Bahawal Victoria hospital during January 2019 to July 2019. All women of age 15 to 65 years were included in this study. Women who were having bleeding P/V, PID, Pregnant women, Women >65 years of age and women who were unwilling to participate in study were excluded. One hundred and twenty women of reproductive age, who meet the inclusion criteria were included in this study. All the demographic and social data of the patients were collected. Those females who had these findings and turn positive on smear were enrolled for colposcopy. Results: The data was collected from 120 female patients. The mean age of the patients was 41.84±13.74 Minimum age was 20 and maximum age was 65. In this study the mean value of the marriage age of the patients was 22.26±2.69 years with minimum and maximum marriage years of 18 & 28 years respectively. The study results showed that total 18 patients turned out to be positive on screening test (VIA and Pap smear). Of these 18, Pap smear alone was positive for premalignant condition in 4(3.33%) patients while VIA alone was positive in 6(5%) patients. Conclusion: It is concluded that visual inspection of the cervix with acetic acid is a feasible and suitable screening test for cervical cancer in Pakistan. Its performance is comparable to the Papanicolaou test