• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2002

The significance of endometrial cells on cervicovaginal smears is underestimated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the detection rate of endometrial cells on cervicovaginal smears. The materials consisted of two groups. Group I was 701 cervicovaginal smears from patients with no gynecological problems. Group II was 208 cervicovaginal smears from patients with abnormal uterine bleeding followed by endometrial curettage; 31 cases of endometrial adenocarclnoma(CA), 19 cases of endometrial hyperplasia(HP), 83 cases of dysfunctional uterine bleeding(DUB), and 75 cases of normal endometrium. Cervicovaginal smears were reviewed according to the criteria of The Bethesda System. Endometrial cells were identified in 15 of 701 cases(2.1%) in group I and 64 of 208 cases(30.8%) in group II. Among group II, detection rate of endometrial cells was the highest in CA (51.6%) compared to HP(26.3%), DUB(41.0%), and normal endometrium(12.0%) (p<0.05). Cytologic atypia of endometrial cells was not found In group I, but was more frequently identified in CA(87.5%) than in HP(10.5%) or DUB(14.7%) (p<0.05). Exfollatlon of endometrial cells might be related to abnormal endometrial lesion, and reporting of endometrial cells in the cervicovaginal smear may increase a chance to detect endometrial lesions especially in patients with abnormal uterine bleeding.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2004

We compared the diagnostic accuracy of liquid-based cervicovaginal cytology using $MonoPrep2^{TM}$ system (Monogen, Herndon, Virginia, USA), a manual system based on membrane filtration method, with conventional Pap smear. Study population included 92 patients visiting the gynecologic department under the suspicion of uterine cervical disease. In thirty of them, surgical biopsy was performed. $MonoPrep2^{TM}$ system provided well-preserved monolayer specimen with good nuclear morphology. However, about 19% of specimens were inadequate to interpret due to low cellularity. The detection rate of abnormal cells more than ASCUS (atypical squamous cells of unknown significance) was 23.9% and higher than 19.4 % of conventional Pap smear. Diagnostic concordance rate with conventional Pap smear was 81%, and severe discordance rate influencing on the management of patient was 7.6 %. Among these seven cases, $MonoPrep2^{TM}$ system was more diagnostic only in four. In comparison with histology, the sensitivity of diagnosis of $MonoPrep2^{TM}$ system was 78.9% and slightly higher than 73.5% of conventional Pap smear. However, the specificity was 81.1% and lower than 90.9% of Pap smear. In conclusion, $MonoPrep2^{TM}$ system provided diagnostic accuracies similar to the conventional Pap smear. The inexpertness of slide preparation and the low cellularity were considered to endow a limitation in more accurate evaluation.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2002

This study was designed to compare the performance of liquid-based preparation from the AutoCyte PREP with the conventional cervicovaginal smear in masked split-samples. In randomly selected 840 cases, the conventional smear was always prepared first, and the AutoCyte PREP used the resldual cells on the collecting device. Parallel AutoCyte PREP slides and matched conventional smears were screened in a blind fashion. All abnormals and 10% random normal cases were reviewed by two pathologists in a blind fashion. The Bethesda System was used for reporting the diagnosis and specimen adequacy. The diagnoses from the two methods were agreed exactly in 767(91.3%) of 840 cases. The AutoCyte PREP demonstrated a 25% overall improvement in the detection of squamous intraepithelial lesion(SIL). The ratio of ASCUS to SIL was decreased as 0.45 compared with 1.00 of conventional smear. The AutoCyte PREP produced excellent cellular preservation and superior sensitivity for detection of atypical cells as compared to the conventional smear. It makes us to be able to subclassify ASCUS into from WNL to HSIL. We thought that the AutoCyte PREP method might contribute to increase the detection rate of abnormal cells than conventional methods.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.104-110
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• 1992

Although there have been a few reports of cases in which cancer cells of extrauterine origin were observed in vaginal smears, such findings are relatively uncommon. We recently experienced a case of ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma diagnosed by cervicovaginal smear in a 56-year-old woman in routine work-up of carcinoma peritonei. The cellular features were several scattered cellular clusters of adenocarcinoma cells in clear background without tumor diathesis. Psammoma body was not present. Exploratory laparotomy confirmed the diagnosis of bilateral ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma with multiple metastases.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.20-28
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• 2007

This study was performed to compare Surepath$^{TM}$ liquid-based smear and a conventional cervicovaginal smear with reference to a histological diagnosis. A hybrid capture test (HCII) was also performed and analyzed. We collected matched cases for cervicovaginal cytology-histology: 207 cases for conventional cytology (CC) and 199 cases for liquid-based cytology (LBC). HCII was performed in 254 patients. When a cytological diagnosis of ASCUS or above (ASCUS+) is classified as positive and a histological diagnosis of LSIL+ is classified as positive, the sensitivity and specificity for LBC was 91.7% and 75.9%, respectively and the sensitivity and specificity for CC was 62.6% and 96.1%, respectively. When a cytological and histological diagnosis of LSIL+ is classified as positive, the sensitivity and specificity for LBC was 77.5 and 96.6%, respectively and the sensitivity and specificity for CC was 49.7% and 100%, respectively. When a histological diagnosis of LSIL+ is classified as positive, the sensitivity and specificity for HCII was 78.9% and 78.1%, respectively. The concordance ratio between the cytological and histological diagnosis was 80.4% (kappa=76.0) for LBC and 56.5% (kappa=55.1) for CC. LBC is more sensitive and less specific then CC, as a cytological cutoff level of ASCUS, but more sensitive and equally specific, as a cytological cutoff level LSIL or HSIL. LBC is more reliable with a high concordance ratio between the cytological and histological diagnosis.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.85-98
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• 1995

In 1989, the Bethesda System (TBS) was introduced as an attempt to standardize cervical/vaginal reporting systems. TBS nomenclature was created for reporting cytologic diagnoses to replace the currently used Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) and Papanicolaou Class System, which are deemed less reproducible. The name for preinvasive squamous lesions was changed to squamous intraepithelial lesion(SIL), subdivided into low-grade and high-grade types. TBS recommends a specific format for cytologic report, starling with explicit statement on the adequacy of the specimen, followed by general categorization and descriptive diagnosis. Pathologic and epidemiologic studios performed over last 10 years have provided evidence that human papillomavirus (HPV) plays a significant role in the development of cervical neoplasia, TBS corresponds not only to currently held views of the behavior of preinvasive lesions and their HPV distribution, but also to the current guidelines for clinical management.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2004

It was reported that the main cause of intraepithelial neoplasm and squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix is human papilloma virus infection, and that the expression of p16 is increased in cells infected by human papilloma virus. We performed an immunocytochemical staining for protein p16 in 17 cases of cervocovaginal smears initially diagnosed as atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, to know whether the staining could help the differentiation of neoplastic cells from reactive atypical cells. Of 17 smears, 6 were diagnosed finally as high grade intraepithelial neoplasm or invasive squamous cell carcinoma by follow-up biopsy and smear, and 5 of the 6 were positive for p16. Three were diagnosed as koilocytosis, and one of them was weakly positive for p16. Eight were diagnosed as reactive atypical cells, and all of them were negative for p16. We thought that immunocytochemical staining of p16 in cervocovaginal smears could help the differentiation of neoplastic cells from reactive atypical cells.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.76-79
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• 1995

The uterine cervix is an uncommon site of primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Although the cytologic findings of NHLs are well known, most cervicovaginal smear of uterine NHLs give lower diagnostic yield than common epithelial malignancy because abnormal cells do not appear in the sample in the absence of surface ulceration. Herein, we describe cytologic findings of a case of uterine cervical NHL which was initially diagnosed by cervicovaginal smear. The tumor cells were relatively uniform, isolated, large-sized with scanty cytoplasm and round or indented nuclei. The nuclei had stippled chromatin and small nucleoli. Histologically and immunohistochemically the tumor was proven to be large cell lymphoma of T-cell lineage.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.129-137
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• 1998

Although the success of the Papanicolaou test as a screening tool of cervical cancer is evident, there still exists $2{\sim}5%$ of discrepancy rate by both human and machine. To improve the qualilty of cervico-vaginal cytology, the authors compared cervicovaginal smear with cervical biopsy diagnoses, and analysed the causes of discrepancies. Among 30,922 cervicovaginal smears from June 1996 to April 1997 at our hospital, there were 271 cases of cervicovaginal smear with subsequent cervical punch or LEEP cone biopsies within several months. The biopsies and smears from a total of 98 discordant cases were reviewed. The discrepancy was attributed to sampling errors in 43 cases(43.9%), and to cytologic diagnosis in 49 cases(50.0%). Among these, 43 cases were interpretative errors(categories A;19, B;16 and C;8) whereas six cases were screening errors(categories B:2 and C:4). Among cervical biopsy cases, errors were present in four. As for 10% random rescreening, cytotechnologists reviewed 3,196 of 30,922 smears during the same period, There were 43 cases of screening error(categories A;27, B;16). Cytologic/histologic correlation was superior to 10% random rescreening of negative cases. The most effective method for quality improvement in cervicovaginal cytology was to implement both quality control(rescreening) and qualify assurance(cytologic/histologic correlation) programs.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2007

This study purposed to evaluate a $CellPrep^{(R)}$ (CP) of liquid-based cytology (LBC) to search for a less expensive and automated alternative cytologic preparation technique applicable to usually encountered cytologic specimens. Cervicovaginal direct-to-vial split samples from 457 gynecologic patients, 40 body fluid samples, and 34 urine samples were processed with the CP technique and the results were compared with those of currently used $ThinPrep^{(R)}$ (TP) method. Both CP and TP methods provide evenly distributed thin layers of cells with little cellular overlaps or significant obscuring elements in most of cases. Staining quality of both preparations showed a little difference due to the difference of fixative solutions without significant distractions in cytologic interpretation. On the supposition that TP was a gold standard, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of CP cytology were 89%, 98%, 86%, and 99% in the cervicovaginal smear, 89%, 82%, 80%, and 90% in body fluid, and all of these values were 100% in urine samples. To testify the availability of immunohistochemistry on CP preparations, cytokeratin, vimentin, and Ki-67 were applied on body fluid specimens, and all of these antibodies were specifically stained on targeted cells. Conclusively, the CP method gave comparable results to those of TP in terms of smear quality and cytologic diagnostic evaluation, and was available on immunohistochemistry. The CP method could offer a cost-effective and automated alternative to the current expensive techniques of liquid-based cytology on popular cytologic materials including cervicovaginal, body fluid, and urine specimens.