title: A comparison of dacron versus Flocked nylon swabs for anal cytology specimen collection.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We compared the performance of commonly used Dacron versus flocked nylon swabs for anal cytology.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 23 HIV-positive men screened at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco (San Francisco, Calif., USA), 2 anal specimens were collected, 1 with each swab in random order, and placed into liquid cytology medium. Specimens were tested for cellularity by quantifying a genomic DNA (erv-3). The number of cells was assessed from prepared slides by automated image analysis. Performance was compared between swabs using 2-sample t tests and standard crossover trial analysis methods accounting for period effect.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Flocked swabs collected slightly more erv-3 cells than Dacron for the first sample although not significantly (p = 0.18) and a similar number of erv-3 cells for the second sample (p = 0.85). Flocked swabs collected slightly more cells per slide than the Dacron swabs at both time periods although this was only significant in the second time period (p = 0.42 and 0.03 for first and second periods, respectively). In crossover trial analysis, flocked swabs outperformed Dacron for cell count per slide based on slide imaging (p = 0.03), but Dacron and flocked swabs performed similarly based on erv-3 quantification (p = 0.14).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Further studies should determine whether flocked swabs increase the representation of diagnostically important cells compared to Dacron.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, DHHS, Bethesda, MD 20852, USA. gagej@mail.nih.gov
authors.forename: Julia C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gage
authors.forename: Arpita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Borgonovo
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Follansbee
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wentzensen
authors.forename: Patti E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Gravitt
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Grabe
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lahrmann
authors.forename: Philip E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Castle
mesh_terms: D001003:Anal Canal / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D001005:Anus Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D003581:Cytodiagnosis; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009757:Nylons; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates; D011379:Prognosis; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D009757:Nylons; D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates