Reliability of reporting the presence of transformation zone material in Papanicolaou smears using an automated screening system.

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.

MATERIALS AND

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.

CONCLUSION

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.