[Ensuring the quality of cytodiagnosis in the cervix]

The quality of cytodiagnosis depends on a number of operations. It is associated with collection of cellular material, it depends on its processing in the laboratory and on the evaluation of the processed preparation by the cytologist who establishes the diagnosis. In collaboration with three laboratories we tried to evaluate the role of the used nomenclature in the evaluation system. According to the abbreviated classification of Papanicolau 8185 cytological preparations were evaluated which comprised 206 suspect smears, i.e. 2.5%. According to the Munich nomenclature II 22 212 cytologies were evaluated. They comprised 155 suspect ones, i.e. 0.69%. Of 50 540 screening smears evaluated by the Bethesda system, 0.4% were suspect in the category HGSIL. The best results (i.e. agreement with the histological picture, the lowest false positivity and false negativity) was found in the evaluation of cytological smears according to the Bethesda nomenclature (TBS). It will be therefore most probably the best basis for so-called "Quality Assurance".