Papanicolaou test collection with the Papette brush or the spatula with cytobrush: A pragmatic study.

BACKGROUND: Cotesting with the Papanicolaou (Pap) and human papillomavirus tests detects most precancerous and cancerous lesions and increases the sensitivity for detecting high-grade precancerous and invasive cervical cancers compared with human papillomavirus testing alone. OBJECTIVE: To compare the use of the Papette brush (hereafter Papette) to the traditional spatula with endocervical brush (cytobrush) for cervical cancer screening. DESIGN: Pragmatic observational study. METHODS: Adult women aged 21-64 years who were eligible for a Papanicolaou test at a Midwest Community Internal Medicine practice underwent cervical cancer screening using the Papette or spatula with cytobrush from 18 August 2021 through 1 February 2022. Cluster sampling was used across the practice. Pathology reports were then analyzed to compare the number of satisfactory versus unsatisfactory results between the two collection techniques. RESULTS: We collected results for 756 Pap tests. The test results were satisfactory with the Papette 93.8% of the time compared with 93.0% for the spatula with cytobrush. CONCLUSION: The Papette is not inferior to a spatula with cytobrush as a collection method for Pap tests.

Bruising, hair loss, and stretch marks in a 23-year-old woman.

ABSTRACT: This article describes a 23-year-old woman with bruising, hair loss, and stretch marks, which was found to be due to Cushing syndrome. Because of its nonspecific symptoms, this disease of hypercortisolism can be mistaken for other conditions.