Psammoma bodies in cervicovaginal smears: Incidence and significance

Psammoma bodies (PB) are seen in a wide variety of gynecologic conditions. However, only a few reports address the incidence or significance of PB in cervicovaginal smears (CVS). Twenty patients with PBs in CVS were identified over a 5-yr period during which time 82,840 CVS were screened. Nine cases were associated with malignancy: six uterine serous/clear cell carcinoma, two serous ovarian carcinoma, and one fallopian tube carcinoma. The remaining 11 were benign: one had an ovarian cystadenofibroma and one had PB associated with benign endometrium and endosalpingiosis. In the remaining nine cases, PB were not found on additional studies, although four gave a history of oral contraception and one each had chronic endometritis and IUD in place. The presence of atypical glandular cells diagnostic of carcinoma was the only single feature that predicted carcinoma (7/7). A combination of clinicopathologic features were helpful predictors of malignancy: postmenopausal bleeding (8/9 cases), age over 45 (9/9 cases), and abnormal clinical examination (5/9 cases). Conversely, benignancy was associated with postmenopausal bleeding in 1/11 cases, age over 45 in 3/11 cases and abnormal clinical examination in 2/11 cases. The incidence of PB in our series consecutively screened smears is 8 per 82,840 smears (0.009%). Unlike prior reports, we found that the presence of PB on CVS is not as ominous a finding as previously indicated, as only 12.5% (1/8) of patients with PB on their CVS harbor carcinoma. PB in a CVS in a young patient merits a thorough examination, but not surgical exploration in the absence of additional clinical findings or atypical cells on the CVS. Older patients (>45 yr) have a higher incidence of malignancy, even in the absence of clinical findings or atypical cells on CVS, and may warrant a surgical exploration. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2002;26:81–86; DOI 10.1002/dc.10058 © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.