Analysis of cervicovaginal smears in terms of their technical quality

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study was to analyze the technical evaluation of cervicovaginal smears as well as the correlation of the technical quality of the smear with the patient’s age. Materials and methods: The study included a group of 43,696 women who underwent exfoliative cytology. The smears were stained according to the Papanicolaou method and then underwent cytological evaluation based on the Bethesda system. Results: The technical quality of the cytology smears was found to be satisfactory (AI) in 80.6% of cases, acceptable for cytological evaluation (AII) in 19% mainly as a result of poor readability of the smear due to numerous inflammatory cells (35.5%), whereas not suitable for evaluation (AIII) was in 0.4% of cases. Moreover, there was a high proportion of smears without cells from the cervical canal in women under 50 years of age. In women over 50, the most common cause of conditional evaluation of the smear was its excessive dryness Conclusions: In all age groups, an abundance of inflammatory cells was a factor that hindered cytologic evaluation of the smear. Only representative material containing cells from the cervical canal should be collected. It is of utmost importance to pay special attention to the correct and quick fixation of smears taken from women over 50 years of age.