Colposcopy findings of CIN and cancer-like lesions of the cervix in pregnancy.

In the course of routine colposcopy evaluation of the cervix in all the cases examined and treated in our clinic we pay attention to the cervical lesions accompanying pregnancy, which are macroscopically and/or colposcopically, and even frequently histologically suspected of CIN and/or cancer. These lesions include findings connected with HPV-infection, i.e. fully developed papillomas, subclinical forms of this infection, as well as the decidual ectopy of the cervix. Fully developed papillomas estimated not only macroscopically and colposcopically, but sometimes also histologically yield falsely positive pictures of cancer, and the decidual transformations on the cervix can be misinterpreted as non-epithelial malignant changes. The incidence rate of cervical papillomas is about 1% in non-selected material; one half of these cases occurs in pregnancy. Decidual ectopy was diagnosed in our material in 6.2% of pregnant women, chiefly between 21 and 30 years of age, and only in single cases in non-pregnant women. On the basis of our routine colposcopy examinations of the cervix in pregnancy conducted for over 30 years, the authors present the colposcopy-clinical signs of these CIN and carcinoma-like changes of the cervix in pregnancy. These observations are colpophotographically documented and allow us to differentiate between these changes and pre- and neoplastic lesions of the cervix in pregnancy.