Abstract

ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND:
Cervical squamous intraepithelial neoplasia is a premalignant condition of cervix. Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection has been associated in the development of premalignant and malignant changes in the cervix. Folate and vitamin B12 can potentially influence carcinogenesis through its effect on DNA synthesis or methylation.
OBJECTIVE:
To determine the influence of plasma folate and vitamin B12 concentrations in cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
A case-control study conducted in Baghdad Teaching Hospital from the 1stof Dec 2014 to the 31st of Dec 2015 whereas 60 patients participated in the current study and divided in two groups: cases whose pap smears showed cervical squamous intraepithelial neoplasia and controls whose pap smear was normal).
RESULTS:
Mean age of cases was 33.6±4.9 years; prevalent age group was 30-40 years (76.7%). No significant difference was observed between cases and controls regarding age (P=0.5), educational level (P =0.6) and oral contraceptive pills (P=0.4), but a significant association was found between cases and controls regarding parity and smoking (0.01 and 0.003) respectively. Moreover significant association was found between both groups of the study regarding to the folic acid deficiency (P <0.001)and vitamin B12 deficiency (P=0.01). Human Papilloma virus was higher among cases than controls but it is still not significant (p=0.2).
CONCLUSION:
There is significant association between folate and vitamin B12 deficiency, smoking and parity with the cervical squamous intraepithelial neoplasia.