title: A comparison of liquid-based cytology with conventional Papanicolaou smears in cervical dysplasia diagnosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Due to the high number of women affected by cervical cancer and the importance of an early diagnosis, combined with the frequent incidence of false-negative Papanicolaou (Pap) smear screening results for this disease, several studies have been conducted in recent years in order to find better tests. Liquid-based cytology (LBC) tests, including the liquid-based thin layer method, have demonstrated the highest potential for reducing false-negative cases and improved sample quality. This study aimed to compare the strength of the Pap smear test with fluid cytology and conventional tests in detecting cervical dysplasia.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on 366 women who attended private laboratories for a Pap smear. The Pap smear sampling was conducted simultaneously using two methods: conventional Pap (CP) smear and LBC), from the cervix.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the participants was 32 ± 8.8 years. Diagnostic results of endocervical cells, epithelial cells, vaginitis cells, and metaplastia were consistent with both conventional and liquid cytology smears, and the kappa coefficient was determined to be significant (P< 0.001). In total, 40.5% of diagnostic cases indicated bacterial inflammation 80.3% of the diagnoses in both methods were P1 and 3.9% of cases diagnosed were P2, the overall diagnostic consistency was 83.9% between the two sampling methods. The inflammation diagnosis was 40.5% and this was consistent in both methods of LBC and CP. There was one case of a false-negative diagnosis in the LBC method and 14 cases in the CP method.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results showed that the LBC may improve the sample's quality and reduce the number of unsatisfactory cases more than with the CP method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Haghighi
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Nahid
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ghanbarzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Marziee
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ataee
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sharifzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Javid Shahbazi
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Mojarrad
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Member of Student Research Committee, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Najafi-Semnani
keywords: Cervical dysplasia; Papanicolaou smears examination; liquid-based cytology