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Accuracy of cervical cytology: comparison of diagnoses of 100 Pap smears read by four pathologists at three hospitals in Norway

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Clinical Pathology, August 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#5 of 119)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (84th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (83rd percentile)

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1 policy source
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13 X users

Citations

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47 Dimensions

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35 Mendeley
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Title
Accuracy of cervical cytology: comparison of diagnoses of 100 Pap smears read by four pathologists at three hospitals in Norway
Published in
BMC Clinical Pathology, August 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12907-017-0058-8
Pubmed ID
Authors

Sveinung Wergeland Sørbye, Pål Suhrke, Berit Wallem Revå, Jannicke Berland, Ramona Johansen Maurseth, Khalid Al-Shibli

Abstract

Cervical cancer can be prevented by early detection and treatment for precancerous lesions. Since 1995, there has been a national cervical cancer screening program in Norway, where women aged 25-69 years are recommended to take Pap smears every three years. There are 17 cytology laboratories covering a population of 5 million people. The detection rate of cervical abnormalities varies from laboratory to laboratory. We wanted to investigate the accuracy of cytology diagnoses by four different pathologists at three different hospitals in Norway. One hundred Pap smears (20 Normal, 20 ASC-US, 20 LSIL, 20 ASC-H and 20 HSIL) screened at UNN in 2015 were evaluated by four pathologists at three hospitals in Norway. All patients were followed up through December 2016. Histologically confirmed high-grade dysplasia (CIN2+) was considered as study endpoint. The number of Pap smears evaluated as abnormal (ASC-US+) by the four pathologists varied from 61 to 85. The number of high-grade cytology (ASC-H+) varied from 26 to 50. There was moderate agreement (weighted kappa 0.45-0.58) between the observers. There were 32 women with high-grade histology (CIN2+) in the follow-up, including 19 CIN2, 12 CIN3 and one squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Using high-grade cytology (ASC-H+) as cut-off, the sensitivity for CIN2+ varied from 68.8% to 93.8% (mean 77.4%) and specificity from 70.6% to 95.6% (mean 81.3%). The pathologist with the highest sensitivity for CIN2+ had the highest false positive rate and the lowest specificity (p<0.05). The accuracy for CIN2+ varied from 74.1% to 83.8% (mean 79.4%). The Pap smear from the woman with cervical cancer was diagnosed as high-grade (ASC-H+) by one of the four pathologists. Cervical cancer screening based on cytology has limited accuracy. The study revealed a moderate agreement between the observers, along with a trade-off between sensitivity and specificity. This might indicate that hospitals with high detection rates of cervical cytology have higher sensitivity for CIN2+ but lower specificity.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 13 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 35 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 35 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 7 20%
Student > Ph. D. Student 7 20%
Student > Bachelor 6 17%
Student > Postgraduate 2 6%
Other 1 3%
Other 3 9%
Unknown 9 26%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 13 37%
Nursing and Health Professions 3 9%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 2 6%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 2 6%
Immunology and Microbiology 1 3%
Other 2 6%
Unknown 12 34%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 13. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 November 2022.
All research outputs
#2,736,981
of 25,380,089 outputs
Outputs from BMC Clinical Pathology
#5
of 119 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#49,403
of 327,179 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Clinical Pathology
#2
of 6 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,380,089 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 89th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 119 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 327,179 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 84% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 6 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 4 of them.