title: How alarming is post-coital bleeding--a cytologic, colposcopic and histopathologic evaluation.
abstract: This retrospective analysis studies post-coital bleeding (PCB) in 110 patients presenting to the colposcopy clinic of the University College of Medical Sciences and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Delhi, India, and covers a 2-year period from March 1994 to February 1996. All the patients were evaluated by cytology and colposcopy. Colposcopy-positive patients underwent a directed biopsy. Age, parity and duration of PCB were correlated with histopathologic findings, i.e. benign changes, viral HPV changes and cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) 1, CIN 2 and 3 and invasive cancer for risk assessment. 85.5% of the patients had benign findings, 5.6% viral HPV and CIN 1, 3.6% CIN 2 and 3 and 5.5% invasive cancer. Vascular ectopy was the commonest benign colposcopic finding. Cytology had a sensitivity and specificity of 56% and 90%, respectively. The mean age of patients with invasive cancer was 41.3 years versus 32.9 years in patients with benign pathology, the difference being statistically significant (p < 0.05). Mean parity was 4.2 in patients with invasive cancer against 2.8 in benign cases (NS). There was no correlation between duration of bleeding and pathology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shalini
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amita
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Neera
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000473:pathology*; D003075:Coitus; D003127:Colposcopy; D003267:Contraception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D014592:Uterine Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000175:diagnosis