ThinPrep® System

The heart of the ThinPrep System is the ThinPrep 2000 Processor, an automated slide preparation unit that produces remarkably uniform thin-layer slides, fairly free of obscuring artifacts such as blood, mucus and inflammation.

Step 1
A gynecologic sample is collected using a broom-type or cytobrush/spatula cervical sampling device.

Step 2
Instead of smearing the cells on a slide, the sampling device is rinsed into a ThinPrep vial containing PreservCyt® transport medium. The device is then discarded.

Step 3
The sample vial is capped, labeled, and sent to the laboratory for slide preparation.

Step 4
At the laboratory, utilizing Cytyc's technology, the vial is placed into the ThinPrep 2000 Processor. First, a gentle dispersion step breaks up blood, mucus, non-diagnostic debris, and then thoroughly mixes the sample. A negative pressure pulse is generated which draws fluid through a ThinPrep filter that collects a thin, even layer of diagnostic cellular material. The ThinPrep 2000 Processor constantly monitors the rate of flow through the ThinPrep filter during the collection process to prevent the cellular presentation from being too scant or too dense. The cellular material is then transferred to a glass slide and fixed.

ThinPrep slides are stained, coverslipped and evaluated by trained laboratory personnel using criteria similar to the conventional Pap smear. What is different is the marked improvement in clarity and specimen adequacy achieved with the ThinPrep System.