Predictive value of ‘Smartscopy’ for the detection of preinvasive cervical lesions during the COVID-19 pandemic: a diagnostic study

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of “Smartscopy” in diagnosing preinvasive cervical lesions among patients with abnormal cervical cancer screening results obtained during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. METHODS: This diagnostic study enrolled non-pregnant women with abnormal cervical cancer screening results obtained at the colposcopy clinic at Srinagarind Hospital (Khon Kaen, Thailand) between September 2020 and March 2021. Two colposcopists independently evaluated the uterine cervix using a smartphone and colposcopy. Cervical biopsies and endocervical curettage were performed in accordance with standard procedures. The diagnostic performance of a smartphone in detecting low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions or worse plus (LSIL+) and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions plus (HSIL+) was assessed. RESULTS: In total, 247 patients were included. There was high agreement between the two colposcopists (κ=0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.82–0.93). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of the smartphone to detect LSIL+ were 96.6% (95% CI, 91.6–99.1), 12.9% (95% CI, 8.06–19.2), 46.2% (95% CI, 39.7–52.4), 83.3% (95% CI, 62.6–95.3), and 0.49% (95% CI, 0.43–0.55), respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of smartscopy in diagnosing HSIL+ were 67.6% (95% CI, 55.2–78.5), 85.4% (95% CI, 79.9–90.0), 60.5% (95% CI, 48.6–71.6), 88.9% (95% CI, 83.7–92.9), and 81.0% (95% CI, 0.75–0.85), respectively. CONCLUSION: Smartscopy demonstrated a remarkable correlation with colposcopy and a high diagnostic performance value for the detection of preinvasive cervical lesions. Therefore, smartscopy may be an alternative tool for detecting abnormal cervical lesions in low to medium medical resource settings. Smartscopy may be applied in telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic.