Endocervical curettage (ECC) is the procedure which involves circumferential scraping of the endocervical canal with a curette. Some colposcopists prefer to perform ECC in all colposcopic examinations of nonpregnant women, even though the colposcopic findings are normal and the entire transformation zone can be visualized. They believe that ECC performance can avoid missing of an occult preinva...

Vaginal swab specimens may be preferable to cervical swab or urine specimens for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae because of the ease of specimen collection and transport. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether vaginal swab specimens are equivalent to cervical swab specimens for the detection of N. gonorrhoeae and C. trachomatis by the Becton Dickinson...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate whether the endocervical brush (ECB) is better accepted by patients and health care providers for endocervical evaluation when compared to the endocervical curette (ECC), without a decrease in the quality of sampling. METHODS Two hundred patients with cervical dysplasia were randomized at the colposcopy clinic of the University Hospital of Geneva into two groups accordi...

AIMS To assess the relation between the grade and the status of follow up cytology, the completeness of loop excision biopsies with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and the findings at follow up cytology, as well as the differences between complete and incomplete exclusion, using the odds ratio. Treatment failure was assessed. METHODS 1600 women with CIN (290 CIN1, 304 CIN2, 1006 CIN...

The endocervical mucosa is believed to be a primary site of HIV transmission. However, to date there is little known about the distribution of the HIV co-receptor CCR5 and the HIV-binding C-type lectin receptors, including Langerin, dendritic cell (DC)-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-grabbing non-integrin (DC-SIGN) and mannose receptor (MR) at this site. We therefore characterized the ...

A user-friendly self-sampling method for collecting representative cervical cell material would lower the threshold for women to respond to the invitation for cervical screening. In the present article, we introduce such a device; we have evaluated its sensitivity and specificity to detect high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), via high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) detection ...

Listeria monocytogenes is of great concern in food processing facilities because it persists in biofilms, facilitating biotransfer. Stainless steel is commonly used for food contact surfaces and transport containers. L. monocytogenes biofilms on stainless steel served as a model system for surface sampling, to test the performance of a sonicating swab in comparison with a standard cotton swab. ...