Vaginal biocoenosis examining comparing to exfoliative cervical cytology

<b>Introduction</b>: At present, the gynaecologists have been increasingly frequently switching from vaginal biocoenosis assessment towards cervical cytology results to obtain information on the type of infection. Exfoliative cervical cytology is a screening test for dysplastic intraepithelial lesions and ectocervical cancers. One should emphasize however that one of the four parts of the new Bethesda classification specifies such inflammatory lesions as: <i>Trichomonas vaginalis, Candida, Actinomyces, Chlamydia</i>, cellular changes consistent with HSV infection and changes of bacterial flora. The gynaecologists however may perform vaginal biocoenosis assessment individually and diagnose its abnormalities in a relatively short timeframe.Conclusions: Lack of 100% correlation between the vaginal biocoenosis test and cytological result according to the Bethesda system means that assessment of vaginal microflora in phase-contrast microscopy should not be abandoned. <b>Purpose</b>: To analyse the association between lesions revealed during vaginal biocoenosis assessment in correlation to lesions described in the studies dedicated to cytological assessment of ectocervical smear. <b>Material and methods</b>: The study group included 1991 female patients scheduled for the follow-up cytological screening in a gynaecological office. Patients underwent gynaecological examination covering external areas, colposcopy, vaginal pH measurement, sampling for vaginal biocoenosis assessment purposes and cytological sampling. <b>Results</b>: It was demonstrated that diagnostic conformity for <i>Candida sp accounted for only 17.2%, changes of bacterial flora for only 4% and – in the case of Trichomonas vaginalis</i> - for only 3.9%. According to observations, bacterial infections and candidiases have been more frequently diagnosed during vaginal biocoenosis examining comparing to cytological screening, whereas infections with <i>Trichomonas vaginalis</i> have been more frequently diagnosed in cytological screening. <b>Conclusions</b>: Lack of 100% correlation between the vaginal biocoenosis test and cytological result according to the Bethesda system means that assessment of vaginal microflora in phase-contrast microscopy should not be abandoned.