COMPARISON BETWEEN VISUAL INSPECTION OF CERVIX WITH ACETIC ACID (VIA) AND PAP SMEAR IN SCREENING OF CERVICAL CANCER IN RURAL SETUP
INTRODUCTION: In developing country like India cervical malignancy is a common, preventable and curable cause of morbidity and mortality .Worldwide pap smear is the most commonly used screening test for cervical lesions .VIA guided biopsy has been defined to be the gold standard method in diagnosing precancerous lesions of the cervix used in evaluation and management of cervical lesions. In present study we compare clinical performance of Visual Inspection With acetic acid (VIA) as a simple screening test and if it (VIA) would be an adequate alternative to PAP SMEAR in the screening for cancer cervix in low resource settings. METHOD: A cross sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care referral institute in 100 symptomatic women of 30 70 years. PAP smears were performed by the conventional method and VIA was done for all 100 women who came with complaints of white discharge per vagina, intermenstrual, or postcoital bleeding, etc. Final correlation of the PAP smear and VIA were based on biopsy reports. RESULT: VIA has more sensitivity but low specificity(76%(33% than PAP smear(26% (88.26% CONCLUSION: It is evident that VIA is definitely more sensitive and accurate than pap smear. By combining pap smear with VIA, we can maximize the sensitivity and specificity of cancer cervix screening.