TITLE:
Prevalence and Pattern of Abnormal Pap Smear among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic in a Missionary Hospital in Abakaliki, Southeast Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Kenneth Chinedu Ekwedigwe, Paul Olisaemeka Ezeonu, Felix Edegbe, Chidi Esike, Anthony Tagbo Agbata, Chukwuemeka Ikechi Ukaegbe, Okechukwu Bonaventure Anozie, Obiorah Godfrey Asiegbu, Maradona Isikhuemen
KEYWORDS:
Pregnancy, Pap Smear, Cervical Cancer
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.8 No.8,
July
26,
2018
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the most common type of cancer
affecting the genital tract among women in developing countries. Screening programmes
have been well talked about in Nigeria, but they are not well organized. Hence, the incidence of cervical cancer does not appear to be reducing. A
possible way of solving this problem is by doing an opportunistic pap smear
among women attending antenatal clinics, since a good number of women do access
antenatal care. OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence, knowledge,
awareness, practice, risk factors and pattern of Pap smear among women
attending antenatal clinic in Mile 4 hospital, Abakaliki. METHOD: This
is a cross-sectional study carried out at the antenatal clinic of Mile 4
Hospital, Abakaliki, Nigeria. A total of 110 consecutive pregnant women who
fulfilled the inclusion criteria and have given their consent were recruited
into the study at the time of their first prenatal (booking clinic) visit for antenatal care. Data was collected using a
questionnaire. Conventional Papanicolaou smear was taken using the standard
procedure. The cytopathologic findings were documented in the questionnaire. RESULTS: Out of the 110 pregnant women who had cervical cytology by Pap smear, 7 had
pre-invasive
cervical lesion, giving a prevalence rate of 6.3%; 5 (71.4%) were low-grade squamous intraepithelial
lesion (LGSIL) while 2
(28.6%) were high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HGSIL). Fifty women (45.5%)
had negative smears. Inflammatory smears were seen in 50 women (45.5%). Insufficient smear was
seen in 3 women (2.7%). Fifty-six
women had knowledge about cervical cancer (50.9%), while thirty-six women (32.7%) were aware of a
screening program for cervical cancer and only 2 women (1.8%) had been screened in the
past. Hence, from
this study, the
population screening rate was approximately 2%. The risk factors were age of
coitarche years, number of sexual partners, previous history of sexual
transmitted infection, genital warts, human immune deficiency virus and use of
contraceptives. CONCLUSION: The pap-smear findings among pregnant women
in Abakaliki, Nigeria showed that the pre-invasive lesion of the cervix
is relatively common. Pap smear should be made routine for all pregnant women.