Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2026
Collection, Isolation, and Flow Cytometric Analysis of Human Endocervical Samples
Published on: July 6, 2014
Liquid-based cytologic specimen studies to screen for cervical dysplasia in rural El Salvador
M Cremer1, L de LasCasas, D F I Kurtycz
1Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center, 1105 Mound Avenue, South Pasadena, CA 912030, USA. cremer@usc.edu
Objective:
To evaluate an alternative tool (ThinPrep; Cytye Corporation, Boxborough, Mass, USA) for cervical cancer screening in rural El Salvador.
Methods:
Cervical samples were obtained from 471 women attending health fairs in rural El Salvador. The samples were read by American and Salvadoran pathologists after a 1-week training course in liquid-based cytologic studies in the United States.
Results:
The system evaluated detected a significantly higher number of high-grade and above lesions than conventional cytologic studies (P=0.01). There were 0.4% and 1.7% of high-grade lesions and above detected with conventionally prepared slides in the United States and El Salvador, respectively, and 3.2% and 3.8% of such lesions detected with liquid-based samples in the United States and El Salvador. Intra-observer agreement among the pathologists reading the samples was substantial for the ThinPrep system, with a kappa value of 0.6.
Conclusion:
A short workshop is effective in training pathologists to use ThinPrep. In the studied population, liquid-based studies appear to offer significant advantages over conventional cytologic studies for detecting high-grade lesions.
