Routine exfoliative cytology for cancer and trichomonas detection at a clinic for venereal diseases.

Routine cytological examination of vaginal and cervical smears is now an established method of early detection of cancer of the uterine cervix, and the need for screening as many women at risk as possible has been repeatedly stressed in recent leading articles (British Medical Journal, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965; Lancet, 1963). Trichomonas vaginalis may be identified in smears stained by the Papanicolaou method (Papanicolaou and Traut, 1943). It also produces profound changes in the general smear pattern; the changes were described and discussed at length by Koss and Wolinska (1959) and are regarded as so characteristic that the presence of trichomonads may be suspected before the organisms are actually identified (Wachtel, 1964). Way (1963) states that the vaginal smear frequently shows the presence of T. vaginalis when other methods fail and, furthermore, trichomoniasis may be diagnosed from the characteristic cell changes in the absence of the organisms and clinical signs.