AUTOMATED SPUTUM SCREENING WITH PAPNET SYSTEM - A STUDY OF 122 CASES

The use of interactive, computerized PAPNET system (Neuromedical Syste ms, Inc, Suffern, NY) for screening of cervicovaginal smears has been favorably evaluated in several studies. In this article, tbe authors r eport on the performance of this apparatus on smears of sputum. One hu ndred twenty-two randomly selected, single slides of sputum specimens from an equal number of patients were subjected to PAPNET scanning. Th ese Papanicolaou-stained slides were preciously classified as inadequa te, six; negative, 81; atypical, three; suspicious, one; and positive for malignant cells, 31. Images selected by PAPNET were reviewed by tw o observers, who were blinded to earlier interpretation and triaged in to two categories: negative and review. Of the 31 smears with cancer c ells, 30 were appropriately identified by PAPNET (sensitivity: 97.1%), The only case missed by PAPNET was that of small-cell carcinoma that contained a single cluster of neoplastic cells. PAPNET also triggered the review of 20 of the ''negative'' cases, which on re-evaluation wer e identified as bronchial cells with squamous metaplasia and altered b enign squamous cells of inflammatory type. A prospective study of PAPN ET for screening of sputum samples is needed to establish the clinical value of this methodology. Copyright (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Compan y.