title: Evaluation of 37,438 consecutive cervical smear results in the Turkish population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Retrospective evaluation of cervical smear results of women who attended our gynecology policlinics with various symptoms and discussion of the results in the light of the literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective investigation on 37,438 Pap smear results of women who attended our hospital between January 2011 and December 2012 with a variety of symptoms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Average patient age was 43 (18-83) years. Of the Pap smear results analyzed, in 21,503 (57.4%) findings were within normal limits, while 153 (0.41%) showed epithelial cell abnormalities and 15,358 (41%) showed inflammation. Four hundred and twenty-four (1.1%) cases were reported to have inadequate Pap smear samples for evaluation. Of the epithelial cell abnormalities, 136 (88.8%) were squamous cell abnormalities and 17 (11.1%) were glandular cell abnormalities. Atypical squamous cells of unknown significance (ASCUS) were reported for 117 (0.3%) Pap smears, while other epithelial abnormalities included atypical glandular cells of unknown significance (AGUS) in 17 (0.05%) cases, low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) in 8 (0.02%) cases, atypical squamous cells with possible high grade lesion (ASC-H) in 8 (0.02%) cases and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) in 3 (0.008%) cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Public awareness should be raised on the importance of Pap smear testing repeated at appropriate intervals in the prevention and early diagnosis of cervical cancer. Health education should become more widespread, and the importance of screening programs and regular check-ups should be emphasized more often on this issue in the media.
authors.affiliation: Nenehatun Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Unal
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Isaoglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.affiliation: Nenehatun Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ilhan Bahri
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Delibas
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Education and Research Hospital, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ahmet Erkan
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Bilici
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Education and Research Hospital, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet Esref
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Kabalar
keywords: Pap smear; cervical cancer; screening