Papanicolau smear chances to be diagnostic for cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) with or without detectable HPV DNA at in situ hybridization analysis

The Authors have correlated 39 cervical diagnostic biopsies for squamous intraepithelial lesions (SILs) with correspective Papanicolau smears (PS), with relation to the presence or the absence of HPV of oncogenic type (HPV- onc) detected by in situ hybridization (ISH). Agreement between cytological and histological diagnosis was present in 14 of 16 cases with detectable HPV- onc and only in 12 of 23 cases without detectable HPV-onc at ISH. The importance of the HPV type in the SILs with relation to the diagnostic accuracy of Papanicolaou smears has been discussed.