Comparison of cervical smears secured with different instruments
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Updated: Oct 9, 2026
Collection, Isolation, and Flow Cytometric Analysis of Human Endocervical Samples
Published on: July 6, 2014
P Valenzuela1, P Martinez, A Santana
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hospital Universitario Principe de Asturias, Madrid, Spain.
Background:
In this presentation we have compared the results from cytologic samples obtained with the cervical brush and Ayre's wooden spatula, against samples obtained with Acellon Combi.
Methods:
One thousand cervical smears were collected. This was a cross-sectional study, where it was decided randomly to use cervical brush for sampling of the endocervix and Ayre's wooden spatula for exocervix or Acellon Combi for both.
Results:
The combination of the cervical brush and the wooden spatula yielded an acceptable quantity of columnar cells in 71.6% of the cases, during both endocervical and exocervical sampling, while the Acellon Combi yielded an acceptable quantity in 61.7% of the cases (p<0.01). The combination of brush/spatula yielded an acceptable quantity of squamous cells from samples of endocervix and exocervix in 87.5% cases, while with the Acellon device amounted to 77.4% (p<0.001). Highly significant differences in the state of cellular preservation of samples from endocervix obtained with cervical brush technique were found upon comparison to Acellon group.
Conclusions:
Henceforth, we believe that the use of the cervical brush and the Ayre wooden spatula increases the quantity and preservation of the cells retrieved during cervical smears compared to Acellon Combi.
