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Manual method for liquid‐based cytology: A demonstration using 1,000 gynecological cytologies collected directly to vial and prepared by a smear‐slide technique
Author(s) -
Maksem John A.,
Finnemore Mary,
Belsheim Beverly L.,
Roose Ellen B.,
Makkapati Sukanya R.,
Eatwell Lorie,
Weidmann James
Publication year - 2001
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.2166
Subject(s) - papanicolaou stain , medicine , liquid based cytology , cytology , vial , papanicolaou test , ascus (bryozoa) , cytological techniques , pathology , chromatography , chemistry , biology , botany , ascospore , cervical cancer , spore , cancer
We report on the formulation and use of an alcoholic‐agar additive solution generally useful for rapid, inexpensive liquid‐based cytology slide preparation. Gynecological cytology specimens were collected from 1,000 women. Two hundred fifty aliquots each of CytoRich, CytoRich Red (Tripath Imaging, Inc., Burlington, NC), Preservcyt (Cytyc Corp., Boxborough, MA), and DINA*TRANS (DINA*CYT Corp., Portland, OR) fixatives were used for this study. Fixed cell suspensions from 1,000 women, seen consecutively by a general obstetrics and gynecology practice, were vortex‐mixed and transferred into a premeasured amount of alcoholic‐agar in test tubes. Test tubes were conventionally centrifuged, cells were trapped in a spontaneously formed agar‐gel, and the supernatant solutions were decanted. Vortex‐mixing cell buttons caused a rapid gel‐to‐sol transition, affording viscous cell suspensions that were applied to slides, smeared, and stained using Papanicolaou stains. Slides showed unclumped, monolayered, uniform, random cell‐spreads. All of the fixatives afforded crisp presentation of normal and abnormal cells. There was an about 3‐fold increase in HSIL+ (0.7–1.8%) and LSIL diagnoses (1.3–4.4%), and a 45% reduction in ASCUS diagnoses (3.3–1.8%), as compared to our cytology laboratory's previous year's patients' statistics with a concurrent 0.2% unsatisfactory rate, due solely to inadequate sampling. This manual method makes liquid‐based cytology inexpensive and does not require specialized preparative devices. Diagn. Cytopathol. 25:334–338, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.