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A simple method to determine the need for glacial acetic acid treatment of bloody ThinPrep Pap tests before slide processing
Author(s) -
Rowe Leslie R.,
Bentz Joel S.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
diagnostic cytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1097-0339
pISSN - 8755-1039
DOI - 10.1002/dc.20152
Subject(s) - papanicolaou stain , medicine , acetic acid , papanicolaou test , bloody , work flow , surgery , cervical cancer , cancer , biochemistry , industrial engineering , chemistry , engineering
ThinPrep (TP) Papanicolaou (Pap) samples containing excessive blood often result in unsatisfactory preparations, possibly leading to undetected gynecologic disease, and added inconvenience to patients and clinicians. Reprocessing of these samples with a glacial acetic acid wash is effective at eliminating blood, providing satisfactory preparation and detection of lesions. However, it increases laboratory costs and decreases work flow efficiency. We report the use of a color standard for gauging the necessity of performing a glacial acetic acid wash before TP processing. This “preprocessing” was found to reduce the costs associated with reprocessing by 48%, while maintaining high preparation quality by improved sample adequacy. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2004;31:321–325. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.