en زنان و زایمان Obstetrics and Gynecology پژوهشي Research <span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><b>Background:</b> Cervical cancer is the most frequent cause of death for women in developing countries. India, the second-most populous nation in the world, accounts for about 25% of cervical cancer deaths. Even in its premalignant stage, cervical cancer can be detected using a Papanicolaou (Pap) smear test.<br> The goal was to study the role of Pap smear in detecting premalignant, malignant, and non-neoplastic lesions of the cervix and to ascertain the frequency of different lesions.<br> <b>Methods:</b> All women who visited the obstetrics and gynecology outpatient department (OPD) at GMERS Medical College and Hospital, Navsari, India, in 1 year for different clinical problems were recruited. A total of 322 women who were sexually active and over 21 years of age were enrolled in the study. A Pap smear was used for all the women to screen for cervical cancer. The smear was obtained using an Ayre spatula and spread over a marked glass slide, which was placed in 95% ethyl alcohol and sent to the Department of Pathology for cytopathological examination. Women who had visible malignant cervical lesions were excluded. All the data were recorded in a predetermined form.<br> <b>Results:</b> A total of 322 patients were screened. Out of 322, 261 smears were NILM (negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy) and 126 (39.1 %) smears had inflammatory changes; 2.2 % and 1.2% smears showed changes as ASCUS (atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance) and ASC-H (atypical squamous cells cannot exclude high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions), respectively; 4.7 % and 5.3% smears showed LSIL (low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion) and HSIL (high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion). Squamous cell carcinoma was observed in only 2 (0.6%) of the smears. A total of 16 (4.9%) smears were unsatisfactory for evaluation because they lacked sufficient squamous components or were obscured by inflammation.<br> <b>Conclusion</b>: The Pap smear test is a very easy, non-invasive, useful, simple, safe, and economical tool to detect preinvasive cervical epithelial lesions. It is evident and proven that every woman above the age of 30&ndash;35 years must be subjected to cervical screening, and this must be continued even in the postmenopausal period.</span></span> Uterine cervical neoplasms,Cytology,Papanicolaou test 26 29 http://jcbr.goums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-452-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Devangkumar Patel devdev966@gmail.com 10031947532846004882 0009-0005-1496-8842 Yes Department, GMERS Medical College, Panchmahal, Gujarat, India Sameer Kadam 10031947532846004883 0009-0005-1346-0234 No Department, VIMS, Palghar, Maharastra, India Ankita Patel 10031947532846004884 0009-0000-1291-0616 No Navsari, Gujarat, India