Inflammatory cervical smears and infection in Kano, Northern Nigeria

Background : Inflammation is commonly present in cervical smears for screening of pre-malignant lesions. This study was done to identify microbial pathogens responsible for the inflammation. Materials and Methods : This was a prospective study of cervical smears and endocervical swabs from patients at the gynecology, postnatal, and general outpatient clinics of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital over a 4-month period. Results : A total of 421 women between the ages of 17 and 80 years were recruited for the study, but most (95%) were premenopausal ( Conclusion : As in most published studies, cervical inflammation did not correlate with infection as infection also commonly occurs in patients without inflammatory smears. This renders patient management problematic for gynecologists. Further research is, therefore, required to clarify the microbial and non-microbial causes of cervico-vaginal inflammation.