Cytologic Evaluation of CellPrep(R) Liquid-based Cytology in Cervicovaginal, Body Fluid, and Urine Specimens: Comparison with ThinPrep(R)

Koh, Jae Soo; Cho, Soo Yeon; Ha, Hwa Jeong; Kim, Jung Soon; Shin, Myung Soon

Abstract

This study purposed to evaluate a CellPrep(R) (CP) of liquid-based cytology (LBC) to search for a less expensive and automated alternative cytologic preparation technique applicable to usually encountered cytologic specimens. Cervicovaginal direct-to-vial split samples from 457 gynecologic patients, 40 body fluid samples, and 34 urine samples were processed with the CP technique and the results were compared with those of currently used ThinPrep(R) (TP) method. Both CP and TP methods provide evenly distributed thin layers of cells with little cellular overlaps or significant obscuring elements in most of cases. Staining quality of both preparations showed a little difference due to the difference of fixative solutions without significant distractions in cytologic interpretation. On the supposition that TP was a gold standard, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of CP cytology were 89%, 98%, 86%, and 99% in the cervicovaginal smear, 89%, 82%, 80%, and 90% in body fluid, and all of these values were 100% in urine samples. To testify the availability of immunohistochemistry on CP preparations, cytokeratin, vimentin, and Ki-67 were applied on body fluid specimens, and all of these antibodies were specifically stained on targeted cells. Conclusively, the CP method gave comparable results to those of TP in terms of smear quality and cytologic diagnostic evaluation, and was available on immunohistochemistry. The CP method could offer a cost-effective and automated alternative to the current expensive techniques of liquid- based cytology on popular cytologic materials including cervicovaginal, body fluid, and urine specimens.