Optimal Sampling Devices for Liquid-Based Procedure in Screening for Cervical Cancer: Comparison between Cotton Stick/Cytobrush and Cervex-Brush

Objective: To find an appropriate sampling device for a liquid-based procedure in the population screening for cervical cancer, focusing on bleeding at sampling and the amount of cells smeared. Methods and Materials: 1,000 consecutive women who underwent primary screening were studied. The specimens were obtained with the cotton stick/Cytobrush® method in the first 500 cases or with the Cervex-Brush® in the following 500 subjects, and were processed using the Thinlayer Advanced Cytology Assay System (TACAS™) following the manufacturer’s instructions. Results: (1) Bleeding at cellular sampling using the cotton stick/Cytobrush and Cervex-Brush methods occurred in 1.2 and 8.8% of the cases, respectively (p Conclusions: The cotton stick/Cytobrush is superior to the Cervex-Brush as a cellular sampling device for the TACAS liquid-based procedure.