To Study the Vaginal Cytological Changes in Term Pregnant Women and to Determine its role in Predicting the Onset of Labor

Introduction: To study the vaginal cytological changes inpregnant women and to determine its diagnostic accuracy inpredicting the onset of labor.Material and methods: This prospective case study wasconducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,SRMS IMS, Bareilly on 100 antenatal patients admitted at term(37–42 weeks). Vaginal cytology was studied in subjects in thepre-labor stage and these subjects were followed in early labor.Results: As the gestation period increases, there is analteration in vaginal cytology under hormonal change. Dueto a decrease in progesterone hormone at term, the numberof intermediate cells decreases and that of superficial cellsincreases under the effect of estrogen hormone. Cluster cellsalso decrease. The sensitivity and specificity of superficialcells was 76.25 and 45%, respectively in predicting labor onsetwithin 3 days.