Evaluation of Abnormal Pap Smear Distribution in Patients with Various Types of Rheumatologic Diseases

Introduction: Cervical cancer, after breast cancer, is the second most frequent reason of death worldwide. The high load of this disease in developing nations is caused by the absence of screening convenience.This research aimed to evaluate the prevalence of abnormal Pap smears in patients with rheumatologic diseases.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study 50 women with various rheumatologic diseases were included. The patient’s demographic information, including the age, type of rheumatologic disease, duration of the rheumatologic disease, Pap smear findings and types of treatment were recorded in a pre-set questionnaire. The control group composed of 100 married women who were in agreement with the patients’ age and other factors but did not have rheumatologic diseases.

Results: The mean age was 44.44 years in the case group and 39.49 in control group. The results showed that of 100 women in the control group 32 had normal pap smears, 67 showed benign reactive changes and 1 showed ASCUS. Among 50 cases that had rheumatologic diseases, 10 had normal Pap smears and 40 showed benign reactive changes. There was no significant difference between abnormal Pap smear in healthy woman and women with rheumatoid diseases. However, benign Pap smears were significantly higher among patients with rheumatoid arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis than the other two groups of patients.

Conclusions: According to our results there was not an increased incidence of cervical abnormalities, but it is recommended that women suffering from rheumatologic diseases should be screened for cervical cancer carefully.

Keywords: Pap smear, Rheumatologic disease, Cervical cancer, Healthy woman, Abnormal Pap smear.