This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on Web of Science (4)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Use of the Papanicolaou (Pap) test has resulted in a 6- to 10-fold decline in the rate of invasive cervical cancer in screened populations.¹ The Bethesda System (TBS) was developed in 1988 and revised in 1991 to clarify the varied terminology for cytological findings.^2-3 An important aspect of TBS is the evaluation of the specimen for adequacy, which is reported as satisfactory, satisfactory but limited (with description), or unsatisfactory. Retrospective studies have indicated that unsatisfactory Pap test results are associated with a high incidence of subsequent cervical malignancy or premalignant epithelial abnormalities.^4-6 By judging the adequacy of the Pap test, TBS aims to decrease false-negative reports. Due to concerns that introduction of TBS terminology has confused practitioners and resulted in inadequate follow-up of abnormal test results, we reviewed the management of patients at a major teaching institution who had Pap test results that were diagnosed as "unsatisfactory . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Methods



CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?