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January 2003
Feature Story
Graded ThinPrep slides now in PAPM
Jonathan H. Hughes, MD, PhD
The CAP Interlaboratory Comparison Program in Cervicovaginal
Cytopathology now includes graded ThinPrep slides in the PAPM module.
While ThinPrep slides have been included in the PAPM module for
some time, until now they have been used for educational purposes
only. These educational slides have circulated among and been validated
by enough PAPM participants to allow them to be converted to graded
slides. A slide is validated and enters the graded sets only when
there is high statistical agreement between the PAPM participants’
diagnoses and the reference diagnosis during the educational phase
of the slide’s life cycle. As always, the laboratory response
forms mailed with the PAPM slides will indicate whether the slide
set is graded or ungraded/educational.
To laboratories that do not want to receive ThinPrep slides, the
CAP will continue to offer the PAPC module, which contains only
conventional slides.
The addition of the graded ThinPrep slides to the PAPM module reflects
the CAP’s continuing commitment to providing useful, clinically
relevant self-assessment materials to pathologists and cytotechnologists.
The CAP is grateful to all participants who have submitted slides
and played a crucial role in the validation process.
Dr. Hughes is a member of the CAP Cytopathology Committee
and is on staff at Laboratory Medicine Consultants, Sunrise Hospital
and Medical Center, and Mountain View Hospital, Las Vegas.
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