Diagnostic accuracy of visual inspection of cervix using lugol’s iodine for detecting cervical carcinoma taking histopathology as a gold standard

Abstract

Cervical cancer arises from the transformation zone of the cervix. Diagnosis is usually made by screening later confirmed by a biopsy. In low resource setups, where modern methods are not suitable, an alternate method is to inspect the cervix with naked eye after applying Lugol’s iodine as it highlights the precancerous lesions. Objective: To look for the diagnostic accuracy of visual investigation of cervix using lugol’s iodine (VILI) for detecting the cervical cancer taking histopathology as a gold standard. Methods: Cross sectional study was conducted at Obstetrics and Gynecology department, Services Hospital, Lahore for six months from 1st July 2021 to 31st December 2021. 150 patients were examined using lugol’s iodine solution and then underwent colposcopy to determine the diagnostic accuracy of lugol’s iodine in cervical carcinoma while setting histopathology as a gold standard. Results: The mean age of the patients was 42.11 ± 10.12 years. 8.67% patients were nulliparous, 13.33% registered patients were with parity one, 38.67% patients with parity two, 29.33% patients were with parity three and 10% patients were para four. The sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of VILI was found to be 92.59%, 93.75% and 93.33% respectively, taking histopathology as gold standard. Conclusions: According to results of our study we can say that the visualizing the cervix using lugol’s iodine (VILI) can be used for detection of cervical cancer