Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide. One of the methods of early diagnosis of this cancer is the screening pap smear test that has decreased both the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. The aim of this study was comparison of pap smear quality with spatula-cytobrush versus cervix brush methods.

Methods: One hundred married women between 21 to65 years old participated in this single blind clinical trial. First samples were obtained with a spatula- cytobrush or cervix brush. Thirty days later another sample was obtained from the same person with another device. Slides were prepared and assessed by same pathologist and described base on BETHESDA method.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences regarding cell adequacy in number of squamous cell between the two methods (p=0.093) as well as the difference in the bloody sample (p=0.082) and atrophy (p=1.00), but the differences were significant about the presence of endocervical cells. The presence of endocervical cells was 93.9% in spatula-cytobrushand 65.9% in cervix brush (p=0.021).

Conclusion: There were no differences regarding cell adequacy in number of squamous cell and bloody sample between two methods, but the presence of endocervical cells was more in spatula-cyto brush. Therefore, we recommend using spatula-cyto brush for pap smear sampling.