Usefulness of cervical collection by the exact touch, the saccomanno single sampler, combined with automated primary...

Automated-primary screening is frequently performed, but conventional smears have to be rescreened on coverslip edges because automated systems do not analyze cells near the coverslip edges because of focusing problems. This disadvantage can be overcome by obtaining conventional samples smeared in the center of the slide, e. g., by the Exact Touch (ET), a single sampler introduced by G. Saccomanno. PAPNET-assisted primary screening was performed on 263 samples collected by ET. The smears were classified as "negative" or as "review." The negative cases were rapidly rescreened but not near the coverslip edges. The review cases were fully reanalayzed by the optic microscope. Ten positive smears were identified among the review cases: 3 smears showed changes due to human papillomavirus, 3 low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, and 4 high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. The detection of abnormal cells was easy by means of the combined use of ET and PAPNET. The ET-PAPNET technique was very useful in analyzing conventional smears and in reducing the time-consuming process of detecting abnormal cells.