BACKGROUND Although the Pap smear is known as one of the effective methods to detect the cervical cancer, a large group of women are reluctant to do the test because of various reasons. Therefore, we carried out this study to determine the level of knowledge about cervical cancer and Pap smear and the factors influencing the Pap test screening among women. METHODS In this cross-sectional stud...

PURPOSE Despite incessant motion of the retinal image, persons with congenital nystagmus (CN) usually do not report that targets are smeared. The authors investigated whether the brief stationary glimpses of a target that occur during foveation periods in the CN waveform contribute to the alleviation of perceived smear. METHODS Retinal image motion simulating that in jerk nystagmus was produc...

CONTEXT Although cervical cancer is an unusual cause of death among women 65 and older, most elderly women in the US report continuing to undergo periodic Pap smear screening. OBJECTIVE To describe the incidence of Pap smears and downstream testing among elderly women. SETTING Claims-based analysis of female Medicare enrollees age 65 and older. METHODS Using three years of Medicare Part B...

Early diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) and prompt initiation of treatment are essential for an effective tuberculosis control programme. In many resource limited settings microscopic diagnosis is still the pivotal tool in the diagnosis of pulmonary TB. This study aimed at evaluating laboratory microscopic diagnosis of tuberculosis in a tertiary hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania. This retrospective hos...

AIMS To audit factors associated with the development of invasive cervical cancer. METHODS Twenty cases of invasive cervical cancer in one health district for 1991-93 were audited by multifactorial analysis. RESULTS The average age was 53 years with 20% (4/20) aged over 65 years. Of the patients, 45% (9/20) were identified by a cervical smear, with 40% (8/20) from the National Screening Pro...

•Primary vaginal clear cell adenocarcinoma (PVCCA) coexists with urinary tract anomalies without exposure to diethylstilbestrol in some cases.•PVCCA in our case showed genetic alterations of well-known cancer related genes, including a mutation of PIK3CA.•The genetic profile suggests that the carcinogenesis of PVCCA might have elements common with that of OCCA.

A total of 217 specimens submitted for routine smear and culture from three different sites within the western United States were used to evaluate the GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay (for research use only) (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA). Overall agreement compared to culture was 89% (98% for smear positives and 72% for smear negatives) for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND Sputum smear-positive tuberculosis (TB) patients have a high risk of transmission and are of great epidemiological and infection control significance. Little is known about the smear-positive populations in high TB burden regions, such as Kazakhstan. The objective of this study is to characterize the smear-positive population in Kazakhstan and identify associated modifiable risk fact...

BACKGROUND Light-emitting diode fluorescence microscopy (LED-FM) has been shown to be more sensitive than conventional bright field microscopy using Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) stain in detecting sputum smear positive tuberculosis in controlled laboratory conditions. In 2012, Auramine O staining based LED-FM replaced conventional ZN microscopy in 200 designated microscopy centres (DMC) of medical colleg...