title: Intralaboratory reproducibility of interpretation of Pap smears: results of an experiment.
abstract: One hundred and twenty Pap-smears were examined by 3 cytotechnologists on two occasions in the Legnano Hospital Cytologic Center. A 10-category classification system was used. Chance-adjusted overall and category-specific agreement was estimated (Cohen's unweighted kappa-statistics) within and between cytotechnologists. Mean K for the Center, weighted for precision, was 0.432, S.E. 0.029 (between cytotechnologists). The most reproducible categories (between cytotechnologists) were "9: malignant cells" (K = 0.683) and "1: normal" (K = 0.533); the least reproducible categories were "4: endocervical metaplastic cells" (K = 0.024) and "8: severe squamous dysplasia CIN III" (K = 0.227).
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria, University di Milano, Italia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Duca
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Braga
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chiappa
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Piffer
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Turolla
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000592:standards*