Trophoblastic disease in Alabama.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J M Austin.
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A Swan-Ganz catheter has been used in 10 consecutive patients undergoing pelvic exenteration and has made the intraoperative and postoperative management of these patients a much easier task. Use of this catheter eliminates the guesswork involved in managing fluid and volume status by providing an accurate assessment of left ventricular end diastolic pressure. The complication rate is reported as 5% and consists mostly of ruptured balloons, infection, coiling of the catheter, and cardiac irritability. There have been no complications in the 10 patients in whom we have used the catheter. We believe that the use of the Swan-Ganz catheter in these difficult-to-manage patients is justified because of its low complication rate, easy use, and the accurate valuable information obtained.
Costs of colposcopic evaluation of patients with abnormal Papanicolaou smears versus evaluation by conization are compared. The average colposcopic evaluation costs $106, and the average conization costs $923.70. Additional savings ensue if a colposcopic diagnosis, rather than conization of the cervix, precedes a definitive hysterectomy. All criteria for an adequate colposcopic examination and tissue diagnosis must be met to make this comparison.
The experience of the Southern Regional Trophoblastic Disease Center includes 222 patients who were referred from January 1972 to October 1977. The initial tissue diagnosis was hydatidiform mole in 212 patients and choriocarcinoma in ten. There was spontaneous remission of 142 (69%) of the moles and one of the choriocarcinomas, and 77 patients developed persistent trophoblastic disease. Of these, 58 had no evidence of metastasis, and all achieved remission with single-drug therapy. Nineteen patients developed metastases; 13 were in the "good prognosis" category, and all achieved remission with single-drug therapy. Five (83%) of the six patients with metastases in the "poor prognosis" group achieved remission with triple chemotherapy; one died of her disease.
As women age, atypical Papanicolaou smears are associated with more advanced cervical neoplasia. The woman under age 30 had less than one chance in a hundred of having invasive carcinoma if she has an atypical Papanicolaou smear, while the woman over age 60 has one chance in six of this finding. An atypical Papanicolaou smear does not necessarily mean neoplasia is present; 23% of the women evaluated for atypical smears had a negative evaluation, and this included women over age 60. Endocervical currettings containing neoplastic tissue frequently are seen after age 30 and may contribute significant information to the final diagnosis; stenosis of the endocervix, however, may prevent curettage in postmenopausal women. Diagnostic conizations of the cervix rarely are necessary prior to age 30 if colposcopic technics are used. The need for conizations increases by decade of age and is required in at least one-third of postmenopausal women evaluated initially by colposcopy.
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A series of 603 patients referred with atypical Papanicolaou smears was evaluated by repeat smears, colposcopically directed cervical biopsies, and endocervical curettage. These techniques as a unit can establish an accurate outpatient diagnosis superior to any of these modalities used alone and comparable with findings in conization and hysterectomy specimens. Endocervical curettage has made a unique contribution to the evaluation of such patients; these curettings have allowed examination of tissue fragments and are more reliable in diagnosing neoplasia than are endocervical smears. Invasive carcinoma and its precursors confined to the anatomic endocervical canal can be recognized by this technique, and conversely the absence of neoplastic epithelium in adequate endocervical curettings rules out occult carcinoma. Indications for conization of the cervix are discussed in reference to the other biopsy and cytologic findings, and guidelines are presented for patient management, stressing clinicopathologic correlation and cooperation.
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Data from a Colposcopy Clinic have been presented in which endocervical and cervical smears were evaluated in singly and in combination for accuracy and effectiveness. In patients with marked dysplasia, carcinoma in situ and early invasive cancer, false negative results rarely occurred using either cervical or endocervical smears; more false negatives were encountered in the minimal to moderate dysplasia group of lesions. Endocervical smears were found to be unreliable in determining the distribution of cervical neoplasia when correlated with endocervical curettage specimens. These smears contributed little as supplemental screening procedures for early cervical neoplasia since less procedures for early cervical neoplasia since less than three per cent of lesions would have been missed had only a cervical scrape smear been performed. It should be pointed out, however, that this was a young population in which cervical eversion with exposure of endocervical tissue and the neoplastic lesions was the rule. The accuracy of endocervical aspiration and endocervical swab techniques was similar although there was a much higher proportion of unsatisfactory specimens with the dry cotton swab technique.