title: AgNOR counts are useful in cervical smears.
abstract: Because they present marked cellular changes, the cytological appearances of epithelial repair may be confused with those of cancer. To see whether the Ag-NOR staining technique for nucleolar organizer regions would be useful to distinguish benign proliferative reactions (squamous metaplasia and repair) from cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN I, CIN II, and CIN III), we studied a series of cervical smears. The smears, previously stained with the Papanicolaou technique, were destained and restained with Ag-NOR silver. Significantly different (P less than 0.05) Ag-NOR counts were found in squamous metaplasia, epithelial repair, and various degrees of CIN. The Ag-NOR technique appears useful in the diagnosis of cervical cytology and particularly in cases with marked cellular change, which could be confused with neoplasia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Biopathology, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Italy.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Cardillo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002278:Carcinoma in Situ / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009697:Nucleolus Organizer Region / Q000473:pathology*; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016622:Silver Staining / Q000379:methods; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000379:methods*