Cervical Cancer Screening: Digital Colposcopy, TCT, Pap Smear
Cervical cancer is one of the common malignant tumors in gynecology. Early detection, early diagnosis, and early treatment are the keys to the treatment of cervical cancer. Clinically, digital colposcopy, TCT, Pap smear and other methods are used for screening. These three tests include: What are the advantages? What are the differences?
Pap smear is one of the main methods used to screen cervical cancer and precancerous lesions due to its simple operation and high penetration rate in small hospitals, but the sensitivity is about 50% to 70%;
TCT is a testing facility for ultra-thin cells. The principle is to use computer-controlled filtration technology and liquid-based cell preservation technology to classify and diagnose cells using special testing systems and methods. TCT technology is applied to women’s cervical cancer screening. Technology, because of the strong objectivity of computer filtering and other technologies, it is more advanced than the clinical examination method of Pap smear, which significantly improves the detection rate of abnormal cervical cells. However, cervical smears have corresponding limitations, especially low sensitivity in diagnosing glandular lesions. The same smears tested by different cytologists may have inconsistent results and are greatly affected by human factors.
Digital colposcopy is generally used to examine cervical cancer and precancerous lesions. By observing the enlarged cervix, vagina, vulva and other lesions, as well as the morphological images of the stained epithelium and blood vessels, the physician can judge the nature of the lesions and take the suspected lesions. Tissue testing to confirm the diagnosis is of great significance for the early detection of cervical cancer and precancerous lesions. However, due to many influencing factors, such as unsatisfactory visual field exposure, severe inflammation or bleeding, etc., which affect the image, technical proficiency and the subjective judgment of doctors, the occurrence of missed diagnosis cannot be avoided.
TCT and histological examination have a high degree of positive correlation in the diagnosis of cervical lesions. Generally, the higher the degree of cervical lesions diagnosed by TCT, the higher the degree of diagnosis of cervical lesions and the higher the coincidence rate. Therefore, TCT can make up for the missed diagnosis of digital colposcopy in the case of poor visual field exposure, bleeding, doctors’ subjective factors, etc., while digital colposcopy can observe the changes in the shape and color of the lesion area, and taking tissue biopsy in this area can be more objective. The histopathological diagnosis of cervical cancer. It can be seen that the combination of the two has higher sensitivity and negative predictive value for early screening of cervical cancer and precancerous lesions.
