WHATS NEW WITH THE PAP SMEAR

Recently, quality control became one of the priorities of cytopatholog y applied to screening for carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Taking int o account the evolution of our knowledge and the progress of telematic s in medicine, several new methods provided a potential benefit. The m ain ones were the following : telepathology, making distant transmissi on of microscope images possible, in order to require the opinion or a dvice of a more experienced colleague; an image data bank, illustratin g typical or unusual images, as an aid to diagnosis and to teaching; c omputer assisted systems, able to process conventional smears and to o ptimize the detection of atypical cells, in order to reduce the number of false negatives, These methods are tools at the clinician's dispos al - and not the contrary - bearing in mind the idea that cytodiagnosi s is, and must remain, a medical labour.