Accuracy of a slide profiler for endocervical cell detection in no-further-review conventional Pap smears.

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of the Focal-Point slide profiler (TriPath Care Technologies, Burlington, North Carolina, U.S.A.

One hundred percent thorough quality control rescreening of liquid-based monolayers in cervicovaginal cytopathology.

Background: Quality control (QC) of Papanicolaou (Pap) smear testing focuses on the identification of screening errors by 10% random, rapid, or thorough manual rescreening of some portion of negative smears. One hundred percent thorough manual rescreening has been reported to be the most effective method of identifying screening errors in conventional Pap smears (CP), but to the authors' knowledge no experience with this QC method has been reported for the ThinPrep Pap test (TP). The current study reports the estimated screening error rate of TP as determined by a QC program using 100% thorough rescreening.

A stiff bristled, spiral-shaped ectocervical brush: a device for transepithelial tissue biopsy.

Objective: To compare a new spiral-shaped tissue-sampling brush with a standard cervical punch biopsy.

Methods: Before large loop excision of the transformation zone, women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia underwent a transepithelial brush biopsy of a portion of a colposcopically identified lesion, followed by a punch biopsy of the remaining portion. Brush biopsy samples were processed using liquid-based cytology and cell block techniques.

PREPmate automated processor: comparison of automated and manual methods of liquid-based gynecologic sample preparation.

The development of procedures for fully automated processing of liquid-based gynecologic samples has been the focus of considerable interest to the cytology laboratory. Liquid-based collection and processing technology has been shown to improve sample adequacy, resulting in an overall improvement in quality of sample preparations. PREPmate, an accessory to the PrepStain slide processor, automates the initial enrichment process of mixing and dispensing the specimen over a density gradient.

Challenge in the differentiation between attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis and hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer: case report with review of the literature.

The clinical differentiation between hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) and attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis (AFAP) is very difficult. The 62-yr-old proband presented with duodenal adenocarcinoma. His history of subtotal colectomy for colon cancer, the rarity of duodenal adenocarcinoma in the general population, and his family history of colon cancer made us suspect that he might have FAP.

The unsatisfactory ThinPrep Pap Test: missed opportunity for disease detection?

Cervical cytology specimens classified as "unsatisfactory for interpretation" represent a potential source of undetected disease. This prospective study analyzed the potential benefits of a laboratory procedure to reprocess unsatisfactory ThinPrep Pap Tests (Cytyc, Boxborough, MA). All unsatisfactory ThinPrep samples were reprocessed using a glacial acetic acid wash.