1. Using the rate of positive high-risk HPV test results for ASC-US together with the ASC-US/SIL ratio in evaluating the performance of cytopathologists.
- Author
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Cibas ES, Zou KH, Crum CP, and Kuo F
- Subjects
- Delivery of Health Care standards, Female, Humans, Massachusetts epidemiology, Papillomaviridae isolation & purification, Papillomavirus Infections epidemiology, Papillomavirus Infections virology, Quality Control, Tumor Virus Infections epidemiology, Tumor Virus Infections virology, Uterine Cervical Dysplasia epidemiology, Uterine Cervical Dysplasia virology, Uterine Cervical Neoplasms epidemiology, Uterine Cervical Neoplasms virology, Vaginal Smears, Papillomavirus Infections diagnosis, Task Performance and Analysis, Tumor Virus Infections diagnosis, Uterine Cervical Dysplasia diagnosis, Uterine Cervical Neoplasms diagnosis
- Abstract
We reviewed our experience with 2 indicators of cytopathologist performance: the relative frequency of the interpretations atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) and squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) and the frequency of positive test results for high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) DNA associated with a cytologic interpretation of ASC-US. Data derived for 9 cytopathologists were reviewed. ASC-US/SIL ranged from 0.99 to 4.02 (mean, 1.77) in 2005 and from 0.82 to 3.68 (mean, 1.81) in 2006. The HR-HPV+ rate for ASC-US ranged from 31.5% to 54.6% for individual cytopathologists (mean, 46.1%) in 2005 and from 29.6% to 61.8% (mean, 45.8%) in 2006. Combined data from both years showed only a slight negative correlation for these 2 variables. Both indicators together provide useful feedback to cytopathologists. We provide a working schema for interpreting perturbations in these indicators to assist in improving the quality of gynecologic cytology interpretations.
- Published
- 2008
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