European guidelines for quality assurance in cervical cancer screening: recommendations for cytology laboratories*

Abstract

European guidelines for quality assurance in cervical cancer screening: recommendations for cytology laboratoriesThe quality of a cervical cytology laboratory depends on adequate handling and staining of the samples, screening and interpretation of the slides and reporting of the results. These guidelines give an overview of procedures recommended in Europe to manage the balance between best patient care possible, laboratory quality assurance and cost effectiveness and will be published as a chapter 4 in the European Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Cervical Cancer Screening. The laboratory guidelines include protocols for personnel and organisation, material requirements, handling and analysing cervical samples, recording of results, quality management and communication. The section on quality management is comprehensive and includes protocols for all aspects of internal and external quality assurance. The guidelines are extensively referenced and as far as possible the recommendations are evidence-based.

What does the data of 354,725 patients from turkey tell US about cervical smear epithelial cell abnormalities? - the epithelial cell abnormality rate is increasing - quality control studies and corrective activity are musts

“…The workload limit can be variable, it can be assessed by daily or hourly slide number or time spent nonstop on screening or daily total time of screening (25). As well as the daily workload, a more highly correlated parameter is reported to be the "eCA-adjusted workload" as 7 slides/day, which means 70 slides/day with a 10% eCA (26).…”

Cytohistopathological correlation of Papanicolaou smears: a hospital based study

“…Cytohistopathological correlation of Pap smear is one of the recommendations of the European guidelines for quality assurance for the development of cytology laboratory performance and, in particular, to reduce falsenegative results. 5 With the above view, the present study Department of Pathology, Grant Government Medical College and Sir JJ Groups of Hospitals, Byculla, Mumbai, India has been carried out to evaluate the cytohistopathological correlation of the cervical lesions. It aimed at studying the incidence of various cervical abnormalities such as infections, dysplasia; conforming the diagnoses by histological examination and evaluating the accuracy of cervical cytology in the assessment of pre-invasive and invasive lesions of the uterine cervix.…”

Retrospective Rescreening of Negative Cervical Cytology Samples Preceding Histologically Proven CIN2-3 and Squamous Cell Carcinoma: An Educational Opportunity to Understand and Prevent Laboratory Errors

“…Cytologic-histologic correlations (CHC) monitor the diagnostic quality of cervical cytology [1,2]. They also offer educational opportunities because they help to refine the diagnostic criteria.…”