Cervical fluorescence of normal women.
OBJECTIVE
Cervical tissue fluorescence spectra have previously been measured in vivo in women with a recent abnormal Papanicolaou smear. Diagnostic algorithms have been developed to diagnose squamous intraepithelial lesions (SILs) based on these fluorescence emission spectra. However, algorithms have not been tested in women with no history of cervical neoplasia.


METHODS
Cervical fluorescence was measured from 54 women with no history of cervical dysplasia, and the spectra were compared to those from colposcopically normal sites in women with suspected dysplasia. Representative spectra from each group were compared and a two-sided, unpaired Student's t-test was performed to compare mean principal component scores used in previously published diagnostic algorithms. The ability of previously reported diagnostic algorithms to classify these samples as normal tissue was also assessed.


RESULTS
At the 0.05 level of significance, the mean scores of 4 of the 7 important principal components were statistically different for the two populations. However, when the data collected from volunteers in this study were preprocessed in the appropriate manner and the algorithms were applied, more normal samples were correctly classified than in the previous clinical study in which these algorithms were developed.


CONCLUSIONS
Previously reported algorithms can accurately classify tissue type based on spectra from women with and without a history of cervical neoplasia.
Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Texas, Austin 78712, USA.
C K
CK
Brookner
U
U
Utzinger
G
G
Staerkel
R
R
Richards-Kortum
M F
MF
Mitchell
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000473:pathology*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D014626:Vaginal Smears