title: Reliability of reporting the presence of transformation zone material in Papanicolaou smears using an automated screening system.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was conducted to evaluate the reliability of using an interactive automated screening system (IAS) to determine the presence of endocervical and/or metaplastic cells (transformation zone material; TZM) in liquid-based cytology (LBC) Papanicolaou (Pap) smear slides.
  
  
  METHODS
  A series of LBC Pap smears was manually screened to determine the presence or absence of TZM. The results were compared to those obtained through IAS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ThinPrep®Imaging System (Imager)-assisted screening indicated that 22.4% of the slides did not contain TZM in cases in which previous manual screening revealed that 100% of the slides did contain TZM.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The reliability of determining TZM through IAS is limited. Manual screening of the slides appears to be necessary to report the presence of TZM accurately.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Erbarut Seven
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mollamemisoglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Eren
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001331:Automation; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D065006:Papanicolaou Test / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D058028:Research Report; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Pap smear; Papanicolaou smear; automated screening system; endocervical cells; liquid based; transformation zone material