Conventional Pap smears have approximately 300,000 cells, and the ThinPrep slides have approximately 70,000. How can the ThinPrep method claim to be higher quality?
With a conventional Pap smear there is tremendous variability in the number of cells transferred to the slide, from as few as 4,000 to up to 300,000. When higher numbers of cells are on the slide they are often overlapping, or obscured by inflammation, blood or mucus. The sampling of the cervix by the conventional Pap smear is quite variable.
Related Questions
- A conventional Pap smear is an established and trusted method and computer rescreening has been approved for the conventional Pap smear. Why should we switch to the ThinPrep Pap Test?
- The ThinPrep Pap Test only examines approximately 70,000 cells with many more left unexamined in the vial. How do you know you are not leaving important cells unexamined?
- What is the clinical significance of endometrial cells found on Pap smears?
