Utility of the Papanicolaou smear in the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis

: In 200 studied patients there was a sensitivity of 49% and specificity of 100%; bacterial vaginosis incidence was 17.7%; the probability of false negatives was 73%. So, Papanicolaou's smear is not an adequate method for bacterial vaginosis diagnosis, but the negative result, excludes the possibility of disease.