In the group of women with equivocal cytology (Pap II) 15-30% have high-grade CIN or even cervical carcinoma. This high percentage underlines the importance of identifying these women. The... Show moreIn the group of women with equivocal cytology (Pap II) 15-30% have high-grade CIN or even cervical carcinoma. This high percentage underlines the importance of identifying these women. The sensitivity and specificity of cervical cytology are low. There are other methods besides cytology to identify women at risk for high-grade CIN or cervical cancer. This thesis focuses mainly on the prevalence of high-grade CIN in women with equivocal cytology (chapter 2) and on other methods than cytology alone to identify women at risk for high-grade CIN in this category of abnormal cytology. Methods like colposcopy (chapter 2, 3), detection of high-risk HPV (chapter 2, 5), persistence/ clearance of HPV (chapter 4), HPV viral load (chapter 4 and 5), and biomarker Ki-67 (chapter 6) were studied to this means. Show less
