How adequate is adequate for the collection of endocervical specimens for Chlamydia trachomatis testing?
GROUND: Endocervical specimen adequacy has been assessed by subjective criteria that are based on arbitrarily chosen thresholds for the presence of target cells observed on microscopic slide examinations. GOAL OF THIS STUDY: To assess the relationship of chlamydia test positivity to specimen adequacy with the use of a semi-quantitative cytologic staining method for assessing endocervical specimen collection cellularity. STUDY DESIGN: Endocervical specimens for chlamydia testing (PACE 2, GenProbe, San Diego, CA) and for a slide cytologic examination (n = 3,500) were collected in parallel. A semi-quantitative cytologic examination to determine a specimen adequacy (SA) score was performed for every chlamydia-positive result (n = 163) and approximately every fifth negative result (n = 626). The Chi-square test for linear trends was used to assess the relationship between SA scores and chlamydia positivity. The median SA scores for chlamydia-positive and negative slides were compared. RESUL
