Manual liquid based cytology
Two slides were prepared from samples carried in
preservative from clinic by following manual liquid
based cytology procedure. One was stained with standard
Papanicolaou stain and other was stained with acetic
acid Pap staining. MLBC slides were prepared by the
procedure stated in two different studies (Nandini et al.,
2012; Kavatkar et al., 2008).
After MLBC we had total four slides from each patient.
Two slides obtained directly from clinic and two slides
with polymeric film prepared after manual liquid based
cytology. One slide from scrape smear and one slide of
polymeric film were subjected to standard Papanicolaou
staining, while second scrape smear slide from clinic
and other polymeric slide after MLBC were subjected to
modified acetic acid Pap staining (Biswas et al., 2008).
The samples were blind examined by the supervisor and
one other histo-pathologist and interpreted individually.
For evaluation of both techniques i.e. conventional
Pap smear and manual liquid based cytology, the
Table 1. Morphological Parameter with Defined Scoring for Comparison
Morphological Parameters Scoring
0 1 2 3
Cellularity No cells Scant cells Adequate cells Abundant cells
Clear Background Abundant debris present Debris present but Clear background ---
adequate for diagnosis
Uniformity of distribution Cell restricted to only Cellular clumps through Few areas of cells Cells uniformly
one area of slide slide adequate for diagnosis distributed on slide
Artifacts Absent Interfering but acceptable Clear ---
Cellular overlapping Cells only in clumps Few regions of clumps Minimal overlapping ---
Folded cytoplasmic borders Many ≥ 25% Few ≤ 25% Absent ---