Gynecologic Infections Seen in Cervical Smears in Kuwait

Objective To study the different gynecologic infections seen in cervical smears in Kuwait. Study Design Over a 6-year period (2002-2007), a total of 42,294 cervical smears were studied in Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital, Kuwait. Conventional and ThinPrep (Cytyc Corp. Boxborough, Massachusetts) smears were first screened by cytotechnicians and finally reported by cytopathologists, Smears showing inflammation were analyzed with reference to Kuwaiti women. Results Of the 41,748 (98.7%) patients with satisfactory smears, inflammatory changes were observed in 17, 593 (42.1%). Specific infection was identified 177 2,679 (15.2%) cases, of which 60.8% were Kuwaitis. The infections seen were Candida sp (73.8%), Trichomonsa vaginalis (11.9%), human papillomavirus (HPV99) (8.29%), Actinomyces-like organisms (3.4%), Chlamydia trachomatis (2.2%) and herpes simplex virus (0.5%). No significant difference was found in the proportion of infections agents among Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti women except marginally higher T vaginal's (10.9% vs 13.4%, p = 0.05) among non-Kuwaitis. Candida sp was the most detectable infections agent in both Kuwaiti (74.6%) and non-Kuwaiti women (72.4%). chi(2) for trend revealed an increasing proportion of smears from Kuwaiti women found with specific infections (p = 0.049) as compared to those of non-Kuwaitis over the years. Conclusion The prevalence of infections identified on ceivical smears was found to be almost similar Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti women except for T vaginalis, which was higher among non-Kuwaitis as compared to Kuwaitis (10.9% vs. 13.4%, p = 0.051). The Candida sp was the most detectable infections agent, 74.6% in Kuwaiti and 72.4% in non-Kuwaiti women, followed by T vaginalis, the second and HPV being the third. (Acta Cytol 2010;54:50-54)