title: Follow up of women with a history of mildly abnormal cervical smears which have returned to normal without treatment.
abstract: The progress of 124 women with at least two negative cervical smears following a history of mildly abnormal smears for which no treatment had been given was compared with 106 women with negative smears and a clinical history of genital warts or herpes virus infection and 460 age-matched controls. After 4 years, excluding those for whom there was no follow up, 5.8% of those with a history of abnormal smears, none of those with a clinical history of genital warts or herpes virus and 1.1% of controls had developed histological evidence of at least cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade III (CINIII) when referred for investigation of subsequent abnormal smears; one woman, from the control group, had developed invasive cervical cancer. Women with two negative smears after a history of abnormal smears who subsequently developed CINIII were more likely to have had a previous smear reported as moderate or mild-moderate dyskaryosis (2/6) compared with those whose follow up was negative (2/89). The results suggest that two negative cervical smears may not necessarily indicate that a lesion has regressed, but that a clinical history of genital warts or herpes virus infection should not be an indication for increased surveillance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Histopathology, Southampton General Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herbert
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gregory
authors.forename: H F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Wagstaff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D027383:Papillomaviridae; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D014626:Vaginal Smears; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology