Liquid-based cytologic specimen studies to screen for cervical dysplasia in rural El Salvador.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate an alternative tool (ThinPrep; Cytye Corporation, Boxborough, Mass, USA) for cervical cancer screening in rural El Salvador.


METHODS
Cervical samples were obtained from 471 women attending health fairs in rural El Salvador. The samples were read by American and Salvadoran pathologists after a 1-week training course in liquid-based cytologic studies in the United States.


RESULTS
The system evaluated detected a significantly higher number of high-grade and above lesions than conventional cytologic studies (P=0.01). There were 0.4% and 1.7% of high-grade lesions and above detected with conventionally prepared slides in the United States and El Salvador, respectively, and 3.2% and 3.8% of such lesions detected with liquid-based samples in the United States and El Salvador. Intra-observer agreement among the pathologists reading the samples was substantial for the ThinPrep system, with a kappa value of 0.6.


CONCLUSIONS
A short workshop is effective in training pathologists to use ThinPrep. In the studied population, liquid-based studies appear to offer significant advantages over conventional cytologic studies for detecting high-grade lesions.
Cremer
M
M
Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center, 1105 Mound Avenue, South Pasadena, CA 912030, USA. cremer@usc.edu
de LasCasas
L
L
Kurtycz
D F I
DF
Schink
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003584:Cytological Techniques; D004544:El Salvador / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D014626:Vaginal Smears