title: [Anal cytology as a screening method for early detection of anal cancer: are hydrophilic cotton smears really unsatisfactory?].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the ability of analpaps performed with cotton swab smears to produce satisfactory cytologic readings as compared to traditional sampling materials.
  
  
  METHODS
  318 consecutive patients were examined at the Ambulatório Araújo Lima of Hospital Universitario Getúlio Vargas in the Anal Cancer Prevention Week and were sampled for the performance of analpap. 180 of these patients were randomly sorted to be sampled by either one of the following materials: cytologic brush, dacron swab or cotton swab. The ability of cotton in producing satisfactory anal cytologic readings as compared to dacron and cytologic brush was analised.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no statistical difference among the materials employed in the ability to produce satisfactory citological readings in analpaps. (p > 0.05)
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results showed that cotton swabs were as efficient as dacron swabs or cytologic brushes in the ability to produce satisfactory analpap readings.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Clínica Ciruŕgica da UFAM. tramujas@internext.com.br
authors.forename: Ivan Tramujas
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: da Costa e Silva
authors.forename: Felicidad Santos
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Gimenez
authors.forename: Ricardo Alexandre Gonçalves
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Guimarães
authors.forename: Romildo Torres
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Camelo
authors.forename: Manoel Nilzomar Damasceno
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Melo
authors.forename: Flávio Silveira
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: de Barros
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daumas
authors.forename: Celso Rômulo Barbosa
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Cabral
authors.forename: Erica Liberato
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Guimarães
mesh_terms: D001003:Anal Canal / Q000473:pathology*; D001005:Anus Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D032561:Cotton Fiber; D003581:Cytodiagnosis; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results