Screening cervical lesions with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Abstract

The screening results were reported based on the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of the samples of exfoliated cervical cells from 354 women. Their spectra can be sorted into two types based on the emerging or not of the absorption bands near 970 cm⁻¹ and 1 170 cm⁻¹: T1 (83.1%) type without emerging, and T2 (16.9%) type with obviously emerging. All of the samples assigned to T1 were cytologically diagnosed as normal or within normal limits (Pap I). 28.9% and 71.1% of samples exhibiting T2 profile, were cytologically evaluated as Pap I and abnormal respectively. 3 women in the abnormal group were diagnosed as to have cervical cells with changes associated with high grade of inflammation, cervical scar and cervical erosion. Furthermore, based on the progressive change of the relative intensities of the absorption bands, both T1 and T2 profiles can be categorized into 6 subtypes. The observed heterogeneous spectra and the progressive changes in the absorption frequencies and the relative intensities exhibit features suggestive of the progressive process of cervical lesion. The FTIR method has the potential to complement the cytological smear for large-volume screening of cervical lesions.