title: Review of cytologic slides from the national women's hospital, New Zealand, cohort of women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 diagnosed in 1955-1976.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To review cytologic slides, mostly at least 25 years old, from women attending National Women's Hospital, Auckland, who had been diagnosed histologically with cervical carcinoma in situ in 1955-1976.
  
  
  METHODS
  Smears comprised all those from the 2 years following diagnosis as well as all subsequent smears for women who developed "microinvasive" or invasive lower genital tract cancer. The Victorian Cytology Service performed the review using the Australian Modified Bethesda System. was 0.97.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine percent of 4,930 retrieved slides were technically unsatisfactory. Original (Papanicolaou) and review coding were available for 4,477 slides. Using categories of equivalence, smears coded as normal (original, 59.2%; review, 61.4%) or showing possible or definite high grade abnormalities (original, 25.9%; review, 29.6%) were found in similar proportions. The kappa statistic (0.79) indicated a high level of agreement between original and review coding. In comparison with the review, the sensitivity of the original coding in detecting high grade abnormalities was 0.80, while the ability of the original assessment to categorize smears as not high grade (specificity)
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This comprehensive review found nearly all archived cytology slides to be technically satisfactory and the broad diagnostic cytologic categories from earlier periods (apart from benign lesions) to be concordant with those currently used.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin New Zealand. margaret.mccredie@stonebow.otago.ac.nz
authors.forename: Margaret R E
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: McCredie
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Medley
authors.forename: Katrina J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Sharples
authors.forename: Ronald W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baranyai
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.forename: David C G
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Skegg
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000379:methods*; D014932:Women's Health Services; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*