title: [Usefulness of colposcopy in inflammatory cervico-vaginal smears: apropos of 140 cases].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The cervical cancer is the second most frequent cancer of the woman in Tunisia. It is considered as a sexual transmissive desease due to the involvement of the HPV.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of our study is to proove that an inflammatory cervical smear should be considered as a positive test and must lead to other investigations.
  
  
  METHODS
  It is a prospective study over 140 cases of inflammatory cervical smears (without atypical cells) diagnosed during a year period from june 2001 to june 2002. These patients had a systematic colposcopy with the biopsy of suspicious lesions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of our patients is 42 years. 68.57% of them are in active genital period. The colposcopy was normal in 10% of our patients. It showed benign lesions such as: ectropion in 22.85%, colpitis in 14.28%, cervical polypus in 5%, normal transformation zone in 8.57%, but also suspicious lesions such as : atypical transformations grade I (ATGI) in 25.71% and atypical transformations grade II (ATGII) in 13.57%. The biopsies made on 89 patients showed dysplasia and carcinoma in 18.57% of them. A case of in situ carcinoma, a microinvasif epidermoid carcinoma and an invasif glandular carcinoma were diagnosed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Colposcopy is an ambulatory investigation. It makes a minutious study of the cervix and diminishes the rate of false negative made by the cervical smear.
authors.affiliation: Service C -Centre de maternité et de néonatalogie, Tunis.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ben Hmid
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mourali
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zghal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahjoub
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Naceur
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sbai
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zouari
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D002278:Carcinoma in Situ / Q000473:pathology; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology; D003127:Colposcopy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011127:Polyps / Q000473:pathology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D002577:Uterine Cervical Diseases / Q000473:pathology; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000473:pathology; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002575:Uterine Cervicitis / Q000473:pathology; D014626:Vaginal Smears; D014627:Vaginitis / Q000473:pathology