GynocologyComputerized planimetry versus clinical assessment for the measurement of cervical ectopia☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Material and methods
This research study was approved by the Protection of Human Subjects Committee of Family Health International, Research Triangle Park, NC, and by the Institutional Review Board on Research Involving Human Subjects of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. All women provided written informed consent before study participation.
Results
We enrolled women who primarily were single (76%), had graduated from high school (79%), and were nulliparous (75%). About two thirds of the women (65%) were <25 years old, including 14% aged 15 to 17 years. About 54% of the participants were white, and 41% were African American. About half of the participants (49%) had ≥6 lifetime sexual partners, and 75% reported the use of male condoms at some time in the previous 3 months. Almost two thirds (63%) had previously used combined oral
Comment
We found high levels of agreement in measuring cervical ectopia by computer planimetry and by clinician assessment. In particular, the computer planimetry method had excellent levels of both intrarater (0.86-0.97) and interrater (0.68-0.85) agreement for measurements of both the absolute and the relative areas of cervical ectopia. Levels of agreement between computer planimetry and clinician assessment for measurement of the relative area of ectopia were moderate (0.48).
Our results agree with
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Jay Baker and Ms Kathleen Arbogast of the CONRAD Clinical Research Center at Eastern Virginia Medical School for their help in identifying use of the vinyl dots for calibration of cervical ectopia measurements. We also thank the clinical and administrative staff of Planned Parenthood of Maryland for their contributions to the study.
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Supported with funds from the US Agency for International Development and from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development.
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Reprint requests: Charles S. Morrison, PhD, Family Health International, PO Box 13950, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709.