Vaginal cytology Archives - Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia

PURPOSE: to analyze vaginal contents using the fresh wet mount of a cytological exam in the first prenatal visit of women with or without genital complaints and correlate the conclusion with the results from the Pap smears. Microscopy during pregnancy should be valued and recognized as a method capable of providing immediate diagnosis in 90% of bacterial vaginosis, candidiasis and trichomoniasis cases. METHODS: a prospective study was performed in 216 pregnant women selected from the prenatal department of a public hospital, between October 30, 2001 and November 12, 2002. Two samples were collected from the posterior vaginal vault and deposited onto two separate microscope slides. To one slide, a droplet of 0.9% NaCl was applied and to the other, a droplet of 10% KOH. Both slides were covered with a coverslip for immediate microscopic evaluation. Tests were perfomed in one drop of the material to examine pH and whiff. The microscopic examination of the material was carried out at a 100X, 400X and exceptionally 1000X magnification. Pap smears were performed in all pregnant patients. The correlation between the results of the utilized cytological methods was perfomed by the kappa coefficient, which evaluates the concordance for quality variables. RESULTS: the findings of the normal vaginal microflora in the fresh wet mount were 7.8%, representing the most observed cytological aspect, and without correspondence with the 3.70% verified by the Pap smears. In the fresh wet mount, bacterial vaginosis was found in 30.9% and candidiasis in 7.9% of the cases. However, in the Pap smears no similar event occurred, the diagnosis being 0.7 and 24.3%, respectively. The absence of a diagnosis correlation of nonspecific bacterial vaginitis by direct microscopy (17.5%) and Pap smears (51.3%) is probably due to the undervalued diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis by the latter method. The diagnosis of trichomonas vaginalis observed in both cytological methods (3.70 and 2.78%) represents a low prevalence of these parasites in the course of pregnancy. The kappa coefficient between the two cytological procedures in the several microbiological findings showed low correlation of the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis with nonspecific vaginitis, as well as the normal vaginal flora. CONCLUSIONS: although the Pap smear presents the best accuracy of the diagnosis of yeast without pseudomycelium, the fresh wet mount has shown to be a better appraiser of nonepithelial cells the vaginal smears. Because Pap smears allow a better evaluation of vaginal epithelial cells, they represent the most important tool to show the aggressions and reactions of the nucleus and cytoplasm.