Evaluación de la calidad del reporte del análisis del frotis de flujo vaginal en cinco laboratorios clínicos del pacífico colombiano

Introduction. Vaginal flow analysis plays a key role in clinical diagnosis and medical decision-making. Standardizing report formats remains essential to ensure diagnostic reliability.Objective. To assess the quality of vaginal smear reporting in five clinical laboratories located in Colombia’s Pacific region. Materials and methods. This descriptive, retrospective study examined records from five laboratories (three public, two private) across three cities in the Colombian Pacific. The evaluation followed the BACOVA ERIGE guideline to assess the completeness of the analytical components. Researchers used XLSTAT to compute means, standard deviations, proportions, and ratios. They applied the Chi-square test to compare reporting compliance across laboratories and used multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and discriminant analysis (DA) to identify reporting patterns and inter-city differences.Results. The study analyzed 1,260 records from women aged 18 to 60 years. Of these, 56.8% were pregnant, and 57% were affiliated with the subsidized healthcare system. Compliance with the BACOVA ERIGE guideline was higher in Ipiales (54.44%) compared to Cali (24.21%) and Quibdó (21.35%) (Chi², p = 0.047). MCA and DA identified three distinct reporting profiles by city. Conclusions. The high variability in vaginal smear reports underscores the need to standardize post-analytical procedures. Unifying technical criteria among laboratories would improve the diagnostic quality of vaginal flora imbalance and enhance clinical decision-making.