Atypical squamous cells in Papanicolau smears

Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance

“…Some studies, for example, use patients with squamous atypia referred to colposcopy for their database. 2,5,9,17 Such data undoubtedly lead to falsely elevated determinations of the natural association/progression rates of atypia because many patients with prior or concurrent SIL will be present in those populations. Such patients are clearly at higher risk for the finding of SIL on subsequent procedures.…”

Clinical Impact of Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance

“…In previous studies, the percentage of SILs found in ASCUS cases ranged from 13.5% to 83.1%. [3][4][5][6][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] In this study, at least 48% of ASCUS cases received an SIL diagnosis on histology. The percentage of SILs in ASCUS smears observed from the present and previous studies indicates that a significant proportion of ASCUS smears represents preneoplastic lesions.…”

“…3,9 A bias in this study resulted from ASCUS cases selected for the study. ASCUS cases that did not have colposcopic biopsy performed were not included in the study.…”

“…[3][4][5][6][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] In 1988 the Bethesda System introduced the term ASCUS in order to report squamous abnormalities when the cytologic features do not represent inflammation, repair, or a preneoplastic or neoplastic process but fall somewhere between reactive/repair and preneoplastic changes. 12 In 1994 the Bethesda System described ASCUS criteria in its reference atlas.…”

Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance in the Pediatric Population

“…Adult patients with a diagnosis of ASCUS have a 10-49% incidence of having a squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) on subsequent cervicovaginal smears or cervical biopsies. 1,5,17,20,22,23,26,29,[32][33][34] An ASCUS diagnosis is abnormal; thus, it is important to triage these patients to a management scheme.…”