Enrichment of the gynecologic cytologic specimen

The principal objective of our group has been and continues to be the improvement of the biologic signal-to-noise ratio of the gynecologic cytologic specimen through: the dispersal of clusters and clumps, enrichment of the abnormal component of the dispersed specimen by the method of rate-zonal sedimentation under unit gravity, and monitoring the effects of these manipulations with biophysical non-destructive methods. This report is concerned only with presenting the current status of the effectiveness of our enrichment techniques both qualitatively and quantitatively. Zonal sedimentation creates a broad spatial spectrum of cells by virtue of their different velocities which are directly related to their areas. Certain fractions of this spectrum are extracted, concentrated and deposited on slides for subsequent manual differential analysis, evaluation and documentation. Qualitatively, fractions M1 and M2 show impressive removal of erythrocytes, leukocytes and debris. Quantitatively, enrichment factors vary from 0.1 (depletion) to as high as 26 yielding an average enrichment of about 6, a most rewarding improvement.