A preparation technique for exfoliated and aspirated cells allowing different staining procedures

Quantitative cytology requires highly standardized preparation, fixation and staining techniques in order to obtain reproducible morphology (e.g., cell size, cell shape and chromatin distribution). We found centrifugal cytology best suited to this purpose. Therefore, we recently developed an improved bucket for centrifugation that permits sedimentation of cells in a fixative solution (2% polyethylene glycol in 50% ethanol) by using centrifugation at relatively high g forces. The cell quantity, the cell distribution and the flatness of the specimens thus prepared proved to be adequate for automated anlysis using the Leyden Television Analysis System (LEYTAS). Furthermore, different cytochemical and cytomorphologic staining procedures could be performed on different aliquots of the same cytologic sample without any change in the preparation or fixation technique.