Related Experiment Videos
Cervical cytologic smear false negative fraction. Reduction in a small community hospital
S E Wang1, M J Ritchie, B F Atkinson
1Department of Pathology, Newport Hospital, Rhode Island 02840, USA.
Objective:
To determine the false negative fraction (FNF) at a small community hospital and its relation to the discovery of a significant error.
Study Design:
All cervical cytologic smears (6,889) initially interpreted over a one-year period (1992) as "normal" or "near normal" were retrospectively rescreened and interpreted by outside institutions, without knowledge of the initial interpretation, to calculate yearly and quarterly FNFs.
Results:
The overall FNF for 1992 was 12.3% and was 19.1%, 22.2%, 3.8% and 6.1% per successive quarters in 1992. A significant error was discovered at the start of the third quarter that subsequently received both local and national media attention.
Conclusion:
This study gives further proof that the FNF can be reduced to < 5% by motivated cytotechnologist/ pathologist teams, although it may not be possible to maintain this low an FNF.