1University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska and Section of Women's, Children's, and Family Health, Division of Public Health, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, Anchorage, AK; and 2Pescatore Systems International, LLC, Anchorage, AK.
OBJECTIVE.: To estimate changes in clinical practice in a cervical cancer screening program after the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology's issuance of 2006 consensus guidelines (2006CG) for managing abnormal Pap tests. METHODS.: Screening and diagnostic procedure records were extracted from the operational database of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded cervical cancer screening program in Alaska. New software was developed to compare these records to the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology algorithms. Of the 16 algorithms, 11 were encoded, and results of patients with abnormal Pap results in 2 study windows (cohort A: 2005-2006: n = 1,431; cohort B: October 2007 to September 2008: n = 1,369) were compared with 2006CG recommendations. Comparisons between the practices in the 2 study windows were made using the Fisher exact test. RESULTS.: Among adolescents with low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion or atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance Pap results, 117 (48%) of 243 in cohort A were given colposcopies compared with 28 (23%) of 192 in cohort B (p