The addition of RPMI significantly improves the cellularity of cerebrospinal fluid cytology specimens over time.

Background: Cytology specimens of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) may be hypocellular, and the cells in CSF specimens degrade rapidly.

Methods: In the current study, the authors attempted to determine whether the addition of RPMI media to CSF specimens at the time of their receipt in the laboratory could improve the cellularity of specimens that would be processed 24 hours and 48 hours later.

Results: Compared with the initial specimen that was processed at the time of receipt in the laboratory, specimens with RPMI added preserved at least 90% of their cellularity.

Cytologic features of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion in conventional slides: what is the difference between cases that perform well and those that perform poorly?

Context: Previous studies have suggested that cases of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion in conventional smears and in ThinPrep specimens that are frequently misinterpreted as normal have relatively few small and hypochromatic dysplastic cells.

Objective: To determine the cytologic differences between conventional Papanicolaou slides of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion that perform poorly and those that perform well.

Design: We compared the cytologic features of 22 cases of conventional smears with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion that performed poorly in the College of American Pathologists Interlaboratory Comparison Program in Gynecologic Cytology with 45 cases of conventional smears that performed extremely well.