[Clinical significance of endocervical curettage (ECC) in predicting neoplastic lesions of the cervix].

Endocervical curettage (ECC) was routinely performed at the time of colposcopy on 200 cases with an abnormal PAP smear. Colposcopically, 77 cases were normal, 99 were abnormal, and 24 were unsatisfactory. Results of the directed biopsies were within normal limits for 84 cases, glandular dysplasia for 2, squamous dysplasia for 95, carcinoma in situ (CIS) for 17, and squamous cell carcinoma for 3. Histologic diagnoses of the ECC specimens were "tissue insufficient for diagnosis" for 11 cases, "benign endocervical tissue" for 167 including 9 squamous metaplasias and 3 cervical polyps, "fragments of dysplasia" for 12, CIS for 6, and squamous carcinoma for 4. Regarding 73 cases who underwent surgical treatment, the biopsy diagnosis had been either false negative in 6 cases or underestimated in 5 cases as compared to the confirmed diagnosis. That is to say, 11 cases might have been diagnosed incorrectly without ECC. The major lesion was located within the endocervix in most of such cases. It is therefore suggested that ECC improves the accuracy of the histologic diagnosis of premalignant and malignant lesions of the cervix and that ECC is an essential procedure especially in endocervical lesions.