This study illustrates the potential of lubricant, mucus, and foreign body contaminant materials to cause interpretation errors in TP cervical cytology. Although liquid-based preparation reduces the obscuring effect of these materials, the unusual appearance of some of these particles in TP cervical smears not only can mimic infectious microorganisms, but also squamous dyskaryosis. This can lead to serious interpretation errors for the inexperienced cytotechnologists and pathologists, which subsequently can have an effect on the women's management.

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Objective : This study was undertaken to analyze the prevalence and spectrum of atypical glandular cells to investigate its clinical significance in our population. Study design : A 5 year retrospective review of atypical glandular cells diagnosed on ThinPrep pap test was performed. AGC were reported in 40 patients, who underwent colposcopy- directed biopsy, endocervical curettage and endometrial curettage to determine the cytological and histological correlations of AGC. Results : The prevalence of AGC was 0.2% out of 19836 patients. The patients age ranged from 29 to 81 years (mean age 49.4 years). Significant lesions were defined as Squamous Intraepithelial lesion (SIL), adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) or invasive carcinoma. This included 2 invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix, 2 high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, 2 AIS, 5 adenocarcinoma of the cervix, two of which had low grade and high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions one of which was consistent with metastastic colonic carcinoma and 5 endometrial adenocarcinoma, one of which was suspicious of breast carcinoma. The chi-square value was significant at 99% confidence interval. Conclusion : AGC were associated with clinically significant lesions in 40% of our cases.. Significant endocervical glandular lesions occurred in younger women whereas the older women had endometrial lesions.. Patients with AGC should be followed up for a substantial period despite initial negative histological findings.

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