Liquid-based cytology (LBC) has been adopted widely throughout the world.
However, diagnosis for glandular abnormalities still remains difficult.
LBC and conventional Papanicolaou smear (CS) were compared for cytological
diagnosis by a split- sample method. The results showed that LBC reliability is near to
that of CS for screening of glandular malignant lesions.
Herein, we detail the results of 69 cases analyses that were diagnosed as a glandular
abnormality by the TP method among a total of 11,092 cases. The TP method resulted
in the same diagnosis of CS as either AGC or adenocarcinoma in 54 cases (78.3%), upgrading
in four cases (5.8%), and down-grading in seven cases (10.1%). From detailed
analysis of individual cases, it is thought that one cause of discrepancy was the
characteristic morphology of the cells and clusters that appeared in TP samples.
These results suggest that adequate knowledge of the characteristic features of
glandular lesions in LBC could contribute to a more accurate diagnosis and to shifting
to LBC for cervical cancer screening.
Keywords: Atypical glandular cell, Conventional Pap smear, Liquid-based
cytology, The Bethesda System, Uterine cervix.
