Prospective study of PAPNET: review of 25,656 Pap smears negative on manual screening and rapid rescreening.

In this prospective study, 27,014 Pap smears were selected for PAPNET review on the request of the referring practitioner or patient. Smears that were negative on routine manual screening were submitted for rapid rescreening. Smears considered normal after these two manual screens (n = 25,656) were reviewed using the PAPNET testing system. Routine manual screening identified 1340 (4.96%) of the smears as abnormal, and a further 18 (0.07%) abnormalities were detected by rapid rescreening. PAPNET review identified an additional 102 (0.4%) abnormal smears, including 10 histologically confirmed high grade lesions. The use of PAPNET testing following routine manual screening and rapid rescreening in tandem, enables cytologists to detect additional diagnostically significant abnormalities and reduce the rate of false-negative smears.

Detection of false-negative Papanicolaou smears by rapid rescreening in a large routine cervical cytology laboratory.

Rapid rescreening was established in our laboratory in 1995, following the publication of several studies indicating improved sensitivity for the detection of abnormalities in cervical smears. During the study period, 285,841 negative smears (representing 89.09% of the total workload) were rapidly rescreened. A total of 7,650 (2.68%) were identified as abnormal or suspicious and selected for full rescreening. Of these, 228 cases were considered abnormal following pathologist review and resulted in the issue of an amended report. This represents an increased detection rate for all abnormalities of 0.08%. Of the cases with histological follow-up, a high grade epithelial abnormality (HGEA) was confirmed in 31% of cases and a low grade epithelial abnormality (LGEA) in 42%. We conclude that rapid rescreening is easily incorporated into the daily workflow of a large routine cervical cytology laboratory, Our results support conclusions from previous studies that rapid rescreening is an effective quality control technique resulting in the detection of increased numbers of abnormal smears.

Quality assurance in cervical cytology screening. Comparison of rapid rescreening and the PAPNET Testing System.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the performance of the PAPNET Testing System and compare the sensitivity of this automated device with that of rapid rescreening. STUDY DESIGN: In this study, 1,000 cervical smears previously diagnosed by our laboratory as negative were seeded with 20 particularly "difficult" cases. We submitted this seeded set of smears for rapid rescreening and to PAPNET to determine cases that could be detected by rapid rescreening, PAPNET or both. RESULTS: Rapid rescreening detected 9 of the 20 cases (45%). The PAPNET system identified 19/20 (95%). This investigation found PAPNET rescreening to be more effective than rapid rescreening in detecting the seeded difficult cases. CONCLUSION: Use of the PAPNET Testing System in tandem with rapid rescreening can reduce the rate of false negatives in diagnostically difficult cervical cytologic smears.