OBJECTIVE: to assess the ability of Pap smear and hybrid capture II (HCII) to detect clinically significant cervical lesions (CIN2/3) in women referred to hospital due to atypical squamous cells of unknown significance (ASCUS) or low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL). METHODS: a cross-sectional study comprising 161 women referred to the Taubaté University Hospital due to ASCUS/LSIL, between August 2000 and September 2002. All women responded to a questionnaire regarding sociodemographic and reproductive characteristics and were subjected to gynecological examination with specimen collection for Pap test and HCII, along with colposcopy and eventual cervical biopsy. The relationship between HCII results and age, use of condom, oral hormonal contraception, and smoking were evaluated by the chi-square test. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of both Pap test and HCII were calculated. All calculations were performed within 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: sixty-seven percent of the women that tested positive for HPV were less than 30 years old. Pap smear and HCII showed the same 82% sensitivity in detecting CIN2/3 when the threshold for a positive Pap result was ASCUS, LSIL or HSIL. Pap smear specificity and positive predictive values were substantially increased when only HSIL results were considered as positive (from 29 to 95% and 12 to 50%, respectively). These figures were superior to those of HCII, but at the expense of an expressive loss of sensitivity (from 82% to 41%). CONCLUSIONS: our results substantiate the potential of HCII in detecting CIN2/3 among women referred due to ASCUS/LSIL.
Human papillomavirus; Hybrid capture; Cytology
