Abstract

In 632 patients attending a sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic who were colposcoped because they were in certain high risk groups for cervical neoplasia, and irrespective of cytological findings, 13 out of 51 biopsied had false negative cytology results. Human papilloma virus (HPV) was the most important sexually transmitted agent associated with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), but HPV was also present in most patients with false negative (11/13) and false positive (11/14) cytology results. Screening by colposcopy, as well as cervical cytology, is therefore mandatory and must be available for certain STD clinic patients.