Background: Considering the significance of early diagnosis of cervical cancer and low sensitivity of conventional pap smear tests, this study was carried out to evaluate the adequacy of papanicolaou smear taken by liquid-based thin layer method compared to the conventional methods for women referring to obs/gynecological clinics of Kashan (March to October 2008).

Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was done on pap smear specimens (n=400) of women referring to gynecological clinics. Randomly for half of samples, pap smear was prepared by manual liquid-based thin layer (direct to vial) method and the conventional method for half of the samples. Samples were prepared using cytobrush and interpreted based on Bethesda (2001) criteria. In each of sampling methods both satisfactory and unsatisfactory cases were identified and analyzed using Chi-square test.

Results: In both methods, the number of satisfactory and unsatisfactory smears were 191 (%95.5) and 9 (%4/5) respectively, signifying no difference between methods. The factors for unsatisfactory smear in conventional smear were exudates (8 cases [(88.9%]) blood (1 case [11.1%]) and in liquid based samples the lower cellularity (9 cases [100%]).

Conclusion: The number of satisfactory cases in liquid-based thin layer method was the same as the conventional method.