Overview
The ThinPrep® Pap Test is a liquid-based Pap test that employs a fluid transport medium to preserve cells and a special processor to eliminate debris and distribute a representative portion of cells on a slide in a uniform, even layer. A ThinPrep Pap Test prepared slide is clear, easier-to-read and minimizes obscuring blood, mucus and non-diagnostic debris, enabling increased accuracy for both manual assessment and potential computerized assessment. The ThinPrep System improves the quality of the sample, preparing a slide that is more suitable for diagnostic review.

In addition to the ThinPrep Pap Test's improved slide quality, Cytyc's proprietary technology eliminates errors associated with preparing a specimen. To prepare a conventional Pap smear slide, a clinician scrapes the patient's cervix with a collection device and smears a portion of the patient's sample onto a microscope slide. Problems arise because conventional Pap smear specimens are often tainted with debris such as blood and mucus, which cloud cell visibility. In addition, after the clinician smears a portion of the sample onto a slide, the collection device is discarded, often with more than 80% of the patient's sample still on the device. With the conventional Pap smear the clinician has no control over which cells make it to the slide for diagnostic review and which do not.

With the ThinPrep Pap Test, the clinician collects the sample from the patient in a similar manner using a specialized broom-like device. However, instead of smearing a portion of the sample onto a microscope slide, the collection device is rinsed in a vial of proprietary preservative solution, capturing virtually the entire cell sample. The specimen is then sent to the laboratory where the ThinPrep 2000 Processor or ThinPrep 3000 Processor, automated slide preparation units that disperses and filters the sample and then prepares a microscope slide. The process ensures a representative portion of the patient's sample is placed on the microscope slide while reducing obscuring blood, mucus and nondiagnostic debris.

The conventional Pap smear has long been a fixture of preventive healthcare and has saved countless lives that may otherwise have been lost to cervical cancer. Cytyc's ThinPrep Pap Test is significantly more effective in detecting the precursors to cervical cancer than the conventional Pap smear.