Cervical precancerous lesions at the Tchibanga Regional Hospital and the University Hospital in Gabon in 2018: Smartphone as a screening tool for diagnosis

Abstract

Background: Cervical precancerous lesions are disorders that can induce discolouration changes. Their detection is difficult in remote areas in the absence of adequate equipment. The objectives were to evaluate Smartphone performance in diagnosing cervical precancerous lesions in Tchibanga, Gabon. Methods: It was an interventional cross-sectional study to evaluate the validity and reliability of the smartphone as a tool for diagnosing atypical changes in the cervix. Study period was between July 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018 at the Tchibanga Regional Hospital (CHRT) and the University Hospital (CHU). The variability between examiners was determined according to Cohen's Kappa formula. The Gold standard test was the cytology. Results: Compared to the examiner-1, the examiner-2 found a high percentage of inflammations as atypical transformations: 15.3% versus 9%. With regard to smartphonic impressions, the examiner-1 found the normal impressions almost equal to that of the examiner-2, 72.9% versus 72.2%. The concordance between positive smartphonic impressions was 93.8% and 95.5% between negative smartphonic impressions, with k = 0.86. Conclusion: In view of the above, the concordance between positive and negative smart phonic impressions was 93.8 and 95.5% with k = 0.86. The performance parameters being good, there is a need to use the smartphone as a tool for the diagnosis of precancerous lesions.