Alternative Cervical Tissue Testing.Recently, six nurse-midwives screened 2,144 women for abnormal cervical lesions in a Zimbabwe clinic using a low-tech technique. After scraping (1) Extracting data from output intended for the screen or printer rather than from original files or databases. For example, Web pages formatted in HTML are often scraped. cells for the standard Pap smear Pap smear or Papanicolaou smear Sample of cells from the vagina and cervix of the uterus for laboratory staining and examination to detect genital herpes and early-stage cancer, especially of the cervix. Developed by the Greek-born U.S. , the nurse-midwives swabbed each woman's cervix cervix /cer·vix/ (ser´viks) pl. cer´vices [L.] 1. neck. 2. the front portion of the neck. 3. cervix uteri. with a mild vinegar solution and then observed the tissue with a flashlight. The nurse-midwives then recorded whether any cervical tissue turned white after vinegar exposure. The scraped cells were then biopsied or the women were given a colposcopy Colposcopy Definition Colposcopy is a procedure that allows a physician to take a closer look at a woman's cervix and vagina using a special instrument called a colposcope. It is used to check for precancerous or abnormal areas. examination (where the cervix is examined under magnification Magnification A measure of the effectiveness of an optical system in enlarging or reducing an image. For an optical system that forms a real image, such a measure is the lateral magnification m ). After comparing results, researchers learned that the vinegar tests showed signs of abnormal cells 77 percent of the time; only 44 percent of the positive Pap smears were correct. Even though one of the researchers cautioned that the Pap smear results may have been from poor sample collection, this study reveals a low-cost alternative for treating women in rural, developing countries. --Science News, April 3, 1999 |
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