Reliability of reporting the presence of transformation zone material in Papanicolaou smears using an automated screening system.

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate the reliability of using an interactive automated screening system (IAS) to determine the presence of endocervical and/or metaplastic cells (transformation zone material; TZM) in liquid-based cytology (LBC) Papanicolaou (Pap) smear slides. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A series of LBC Pap smears was manually screened to determine the presence or absence of TZM. The results were compared to those obtained through IAS. RESULTS: ThinPrep® Imaging System (Imager)-assisted screening indicated that 22.4% of the slides did not contain TZM in cases in which previous manual screening revealed that 100% of the slides did contain TZM. CONCLUSION: The reliability of determining TZM through IAS is limited. Manual screening of the slides appears to be necessary to report the presence of TZM accurately.

Fascin expression in cholesteatoma: correlation with destruction of the ossicular chain and extent of disease.

OBJECTIVE: Fascin is an actin-bundling protein found in cell membrane protrusions and increases cell motility. The expression of fascin in epithelial neoplasms has been described only recently. No data are available concerning the role of this protein in invasive cholesteatoma. Thus, we investigated the expression of fascin in cholesteatoma tissue and the relationship between fascin expression and intraoperative evaluation of the destruction of the ossicular chain and extent of disease. METHOD: Cholesteatoma specimens of 28 patients and external auditory canal (EAC) skin specimens of the same patients (as the control group) were collected from mastoidectomies. Immunohistochemical technique was used to investigate the fascin expression in all cholesteatoma tissues and EAC skin specimens. Immunohistochemical staining was assessed semiquantitatively based on the thickness of epithelium. SPSS software version 16.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was performed to statistically analyse the relationships between fascin expression and intraoperative evaluation destruction of ossicular chain and extent of the disease. RESULTS: Immunohistochemically, there was no or very low fascin expression observed in normal epithelial cells of EAC skin, while expressed in cholesteatoma tissue. Also, fascin expression in cholesteatoma tissues was significantly correlated with destruction of ossicular chain and extent of the disease. CONCLUSIONS: Fascin expression is usually found in cholesteatoma epithelium and is correlated with destruction of the ossicular chain and extent of disease. Considering all of the correlations between the clinical and histopathological findings, 'fascin immunoexpression scoring' may be used for histological grading of cholesteatoma.