A comparison between referral and hospital cervical cytology laboratory reports

The accuracy of reports from various cytology laboratories has hitherto not been evaluated in Israel. The purpose of our study was to assess the degree of concordance between cervical cytology reports from laboratories outside our hospital with hospital cytology reports, and of both, with biopsy reports. The study group comprised 95 women referred because of an abnormal cytology smear, and who had a repeat cytology smear in the hospital within 3 months without intervening treatment. Fifty-one of these women had a colposcopically directed biopsy. We found a poor concordance between referral and hospital cervical cytology reports, and a better concordance of hospital cytology reports with biopsy findings than of referral cytology reports. There was a tendency for overdiagnosis in both the referral and the hospital cytology reports. A mechanism for continuous quality control of cervical cytology smear reports is needed.