Automated Rescreening of Pap Smears.

The objective of this study was to determine effectiveness and cost of Papnet-assisted rescreening in identifying cervical abnormalities not identified by manual Pap smear rescreening methods. Papnet-assisted rescreening was performed on using 5478 Pap smears previously identified as within normal limits or benign changes on both initial screening and random rescreening. Cases in which a diagnostic change was considered were reviewed by a panel of three cytotechnologists and three pathologists to obtain a consensus diagnosis. Follow-up was attempted on all patients for whom this panel believed a diagnosis of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, ASCUS atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance, AGUS or squamous intraepithelial neoplasia was warranted. Papnet-assisted examination identified 5 cases of ASCUS and 1 case of AGUS which had not been previously diagnosed no additional squamous intraepithelial lesions were identified in these smears the patient with a diagnosis of AGUS on the smear was diagnosed as having a low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion on follow-up smear.A cost of 8564-34084 depending on the Papnet charge for each additional ASCUSAGUS diagnosis, and a cost of 25691 - 104410 is expected for each case of low grade SIL identified by Papnet-assisted rescreening and not by traditional manual rescreening.