2.1 Study Population
This study included patients with a definitive histopathologic diagnosis of VaIN who were referred for colposcopy from February 2013 to November 2022 at the Cervical Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Health Center at Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital dueto abnormal cytology results and/or a positive hr-HPV test, and underwent biopsy from suspicious regions. The pathological diagnosis of tissue and cytology specimens were independently performed by two senior pathologists. The interval between cytological tests/ HPV test and colposcopy were all less than 3 months. Patients with a history of VaIN or cervical cancer metastasis were excluded from the study. Clinical information, including age, gravidity, parity, HPV genotypes, cytology results, cervical lesion history, hysterectomy history cervical pathology and vaginal pathology, was obtained from the medical records of the department.
This study was conducted in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013) and was endorsed by the Ethics Committee at Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University (2023KY003). An exemption of informed consent was obtained considering the retrospective nature of the study.