Significance of binucleated cells with compression in atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance

• Published in: Acta cytologica Vol. 57; no. 6; p. 599
• Main Authors: Washiya, Kiyotada, Motoi, Makoto, Kobayashi, Takako, Yoshioka, Haruhiko, Watanabe, Jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland 01.01.2013
• Subjects: Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia - pathology; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia - virology; Female; Humans; Papanicolaou Test; Papillomavirus Infections - complications; Papillomavirus Infections - pathology; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - pathology; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - virology; Vaginal Smears
• ISSN: 0001-5547
• DOI: 10.1159/000353802

To increase the accuracy of the diagnosis of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US), ASC-US were divided into high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV HR+) and non-high-risk HPV (HPV HR-) cases to analyze the significance of binucleated cells with compression. ThinPrep specimens of ASC-US were examined. This study included 21 CIN and HPV HR+ (CIN+), 19 benign and HPV HR- (B-) and 10 benign and HPV HR+ (B+) cases. The number of cells were examined by defining binucleated cells with their nuclei pressing against each other as positive compression, and their relation to the relative light units (RLUs) of the DNA Hybrid capture 2 (HC2) was determined. 95.2% of CIN+ and 15.8% of B- cases were compression positive, while 4.8% of CIN+ and 84.2% of B- cases were compression negative, which was significantly different. The average number of cells with positive compression was 5.7 ± 5.3 in CIN+, 2.0 ± 0.7 in B- and 5.5 ± 1.5 in B+ cases, with significant differences between CIN+ and B- and between B- and B+ cases. The number of compression-positive cells increased as HPV HC2 RLUs became higher. Positive compression is useful in determining ASC-US with HPV HR+. The identification of positive compression is highly practical because it can be observed morphologically.