title: Consistency of reporting endocervical cells. An intralaboratory and interlaboratory assessment.
abstract: A study of the intralaboratory and interlaboratory consistency of reporting endocervical cells on cytologic smears is presented. Two sets of 40 slides were compiled from previously reported material. Twenty-two laboratories each reported one set of the slides according to a single coding schedule. The intralaboratory agreement on the endocervical cell code was 80%. Considerable variation was evident between laboratories. While only 14% of the 80 slides received a unanimous endocervical code across the 11 reviewing laboratories, 73 of the 80 slides had agreement by at least 7 of the 11 reviewing laboratories. If the coding option "minor reactive and inflammatory changes in endocervical cells" was amalgamated with the coding option "normal endocervical cells present," a substantial improvement in the level of agreement resulted. The probability of agreement between laboratories did not vary according to whether the subsequent histology/cytology was reported as negative or as a low grade abnormality.
authors.affiliation: Victorian Cervical Cytology Registry, Carlton South, Australia.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000166:cytology* / Q000473:pathology*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011786:Quality Control; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000592:standards*