摘要：Introduction: Gynecologists have been increasingly frequently switching from vaginal biocoenosis assessment towards cervical cytology results to obtain information on infection type. Exfoliative cervical cytology is a screening test for dysplastic intraepithelial lesions and ectocervical cancers. One should emphasize, however, that one of the four parts of the new Bethesda classification specifies such inflammatory lesions as: Trichomonas vaginalis, Candida, Actinomyces, Chlamydia, cellular changes consistent with HSV infection, and changes in bacterial flora. Gynecologists, however, can perform vaginal biocoenosis assessment individually and diagnose its abnormalities in a relatively short timeframe.Purpose: To analyse associations between lesions revealed during vaginal biocoenosis assessment in correlation to lesions described in studies dedicated to cytological assessments of ectocervical smear.Materials and methods: The study group included 1991 female patients scheduled for follow-upcytological screening in a gynecological office. Patients underwent gynecological examination covering external areas, colposcopy, vaginal pH measurement, sampling for vaginal biocoenosis assessment purposes, and cytological sampling.Results: It was demonstrated that diagnostic conformity for Candida sp accounted for only 17.2%, changes of bacterial flora for only 4%, and in the case of Trichomonas vaginalis for only 3.9%. According to our observations, bacterial infections and candidiases were more frequently diagnosed during vaginal biocoenosis examinations comparing with cytological screening; whereas, Trichomonas vaginalis infections were more frequently diagnosed in cytological screening.Conclusions: Lack of 100% correlation between the vaginal biocoenosis test and cytological results according to the Bethesda system means that assessment of vaginal microflora in phase-contrast microscopy should not be abandoned.
