Diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma using the Mi-MarkR helix sampling technique

The traditional Papanicolaou smear achieves only 20--60% diagnostic accuracy when applied to endometrial carcinoma. Consequently, various specially designed methods for the early detection of endometrial carcinoma have been tried out. The present study was a comparison of conventional curettage with a new technique, the Milan-Markley helix method (Mi-MarkR) for the obtaining of material from the uterine cavity for both cytological and histological evaluation. The material included 474 samples from 401 patients. The method is designed as an office procedure and is not intended to replace diagnostic curettage. It should be used as an additional diagnostic procedure in high-risk groups and in the follow-up of such patients. With cytological examination of the material the specificity was found to be 97.6% and the sensitivity 85.7%.