title: Long-term follow-up of patients following negative colposcopy: a new gold standard and its implications for cervical screening.
abstract: From 1189 colposcopy referrals in 1997 at a single cervical screening centre, 88 women who had no biopsy taken at colposcopy (negative colposcopy) were identified. We followed up these women for a maximum of 4 years and calculated the positive predictive value (PPV) of a single smear before and after follow-up. Using slide review we attempted to correlate the grade of smear leading to colposcopy referral with final outcome. Our results showed that long-term follow-up alters the PPV of cervical cytology. Analysis showed a strong correlation between the review grade of the referring smear and the final outcome after follow-up. From these results we suggest an evidence-based protocol for cervical screening follow-up after negative colposcopy.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003127:Colposcopy / Q000592:standards*; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000145:classification / Q000379:methods*; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000175:diagnosis