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Speculoscopy is a procedure in which a special blue-white light (Speculite) is used to examine the cervix for cancerous or pre-cancerous lesions.

Acetic acid is applied to the cervix, it is let sit for 60 seconds, then the cervix is examined with 4-6x magnification. The light is generated by a chemiluminescent light stick, which is attached to the inner side of the upper blade of the vaginal speculum by an adhesive strip. The test can be used to complement a pap smear in screening of cervical cancer. A negative speculoscopy, along with a negative pap smear provides greater assurance of absence of disease.

It was developed in 1988. It was FDA approved as an add-on to Pap smear screening in 1995.

At this time there is no CPT/HCPCS code for this and most medical insurance companies do not cover this procedure.

Light strip provides light for 15–20 minutes.

References

1. ^ Press release: New screening exam, used with Pap smear, improves cervical screening.

External links

• Speculoscopy Archived 2008-06-26 at the Wayback Machine
• Speculite Archived 2011-08-24 at the Wayback Machine

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