Non-visual prescreening of cervical smears with a flow-through cytophotometer

An experiment was carried out with the fluorescence impulse cytophotometer I.C.P. 11 (Phywe, Göttingen, Germany) in a routine cytology laboratory. A total of 600 cervical smears were examined with 15 test samples of body fluids and tissue cultures. The results were compared with those obtained by classical Papanicolaou cytology and clinical "follow-up". The main purpose was to find criteria for malignancy to be used as parameters in automated non-visual cytology. The main problems in the technique of preparing and measuring specimens have been discussed. Preparation of cell suspensions was time consuming; moreover, techniques were not completely controllable. A method for judging histograms was discussed. It appears that unless a better method is found for preparing suspensions of single, naked and undamaged nuclei, free from leukocytes, impulse cytophotometric measurement of DNA will remain an unreliable method for prescreening of cervical smears.