Combined dynamic spectral imaging and routine colposcopy strategy for the diagnosis of pre-cancerous cervical lesions

The present study aimed to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of combined dynamic spectral imaging (DySI) and routine colposcopy in diagnosing pre-cancerous lesions in subjects with abnormal cytological results. The retrospective study included 146 patients diagnosed with cervical lesions and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance according to a colposcopy examination. Data from colposcopy clinics were used to evaluate performance of DySI in different histological types. The present study evaluated the clinical performance of two different referral strategies (single diagnosis or combined diagnosis) in combination with a smear test. The sensitivity of DySI and routine colposcopy for detecting severe pre-cancerous cervical disease in patients referred with a borderline histology or mild dyskaryosis was 69% [95% confidence interval (CI): 56–82%] and 43% (95% CI: 28–57%), respectively (P=0.01). However, for the HSIL group, the sensitivity of DySI and routine colposcopy was 64 and 61%, respectively. In the HSIL group, the sensitivity was as high as 85% when the DySI method was combined with routine colposcopy. When the conditions of new screening strategies were applied to remove those patients with a negligible risk, DySI had a higher sensitivity to detect severe pre-cancerous cervical disease than conventional colposcopy. In conclusion, the combined DySI and routine colposcopy strategy had a higher diagnostic sensitivity in subjects with low or high abnormalities on cytological examination, compared with either method separately. The present study suggests that the baseline colposcopy sensitivity may be enhanced with the adjunctive use of DySI, irrespective of the cytology result for referral.