Abstract

A new cervical sampling device, the ‘LonStenn’ was evaluated against devices in common use: the Cervex Brush, and the CytoBrush plus Ayres Spatula, by comparing the number of cells removed from the cervix and the number released from the device onto a glass slide.

One hundred and eighty patients were studied. Ninety patients had Papanicolaou (Pap) smears, and at the same examination, colposcopy and biopsies, with 30 patients being allocated to each of the three sampling methods. After the plating of the Pap smear, the ‘head’ of the device was cut off and placed in a vial of Tyrode saline solution and vortexed. The residual cells remaining in the saline solution were counted in a Kova Slide Chamber. This allowed assessment of one possible cause of false negatives (ie, cell entrapment).

A control group of 90 patients, with 30 allocated to each device, had Pap smears taken which were not plated out: the head of the device was removed and again placed in Tyrode saline solution. The cells harvested from the cervix were counted by the same method as before. The subtraction of the cells from the plated-out group from the control (nonplated out) group gave an indication of the number of cells delivered to the slide for cytological evaluation.

The LonStenn is shown to be more efficient in its quantitative delivery of representative harvested cells from the cervix to a glass slide for cytological analysis.

Qualitative assessment of smears prepared from this device suggested an improvement, as indicated by less blood staining. This should also ultimately be reflected by a decrease in false negatives in the laboratory.