Glossary Definitions

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Normal ectocervix
The ectocervix corresponds to the vaginal portion of the uterine cervix. The ectocervix is centered around the external orifice which is round (pin hole shape) in nulliparous women and slit-like in multiparous women.
Ectocervix is covered with a non-keratinized stratified squamous epithelium.
Exocervical epithelium consists of 4 layers:
- basal cells, lying on the basement membrane,
- parabasal cells between basal cell layer and mature cell layers,
- intermediate cells, polygonal and mature cells,
- superficial cells, with a morphology similar to intermediate cells but with a pyknotic nucleus.
A layer of exfoliating cells is present in histological sections.

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