The false-negative fraction for Papanicolaou smears: how often are "abnormal" smears not detected by a "standard" screening cytologist?
Screening error rates have been measured in various ways. The false-negative fraction is advantageous because it is valid for comparisons between laboratories, which is crucial if standards for error rates are to be developed. False-negative fractions reported or calculated from data in the literature range from approximately 2% to 28%. Some of the highest published rates have come from prestigious academic laboratories. The lowest rates are from studies that covered terms of a year or less and in which only small parts of each slide were rescreened or the rescreeners were relatively inexperienced. Before standards for false-negative fractions can be set, we must collect more data and encourage more laboratories to measure the false-negative fraction.
Naryshkin
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Department of Pathology, Mercy Hospital, Janesville, Wis 53547, USA.
D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D010338:Pathology, Clinical / Q000592:standards*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012015:Reference Standards; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000592:standards*