Abstract
Sixty-two patients with various endometrial disorders or a normal endometrium were investigated by cervical and vaginal smears, endometrial smears and thorough curettage, and the results obtained by the three methods were compared. The endometrial smears were taken by using a modified “brush technique”. This technique makes it possible to take endometrial samples on frequently repeated occasions, without anesthesia and without dilatation of the cervix.
The results of this study indicate that the “brush technique” yields cytological material satisfactory for the diagnosis of some endometrial disorders.
Using endometrial material obtained by the “brush technique” planimetric measurements of the cell nuclei were carried out in four groups of five subjects each representing four different types of endometrial activity such as proliferative, early secretory, late secretory and athrophic. An analysis of variance revealed that the cell nuclei were highly significantly different at each of the four phases studied. It is concluded that the cytological material obtained by the “brush technique” is suitable for objective cell analysis e. g. planimetric measurements, cytophotometric studies etc. It is suggested that the “brush technique” also offers excellent possibilities for studying the metabolism of isolated endometrial cells.