The Pap test–Celebrating 100 years in the making and beyond

Inception and Development of the Papanicolaou Stain Method

“…By revealing these elements, Papanicolaou developed diagnostic criteria distinguishing the cytopathology of cervical squamous cancer and adenocarcinoma. Cellular features were then illustrated through remarkable water color drawings by the scientific illustrator Hashime Murayama in Papanicolaou's 1943 and 1954 bound texts [2,6,7,10] .…”

“…We include notations with anecdotal information put forward by the authors. The research and historical events that led to the inception and development of the Pap stain method are not only cytologically significant, they also facilitated wide-reaching contributions in modern diagnostic and preventive medicine [10] .…”

“…Shortly after his arrival at Cornell, Papanicolaou was tasked to extend his previous PhD research work on sex determination and chromosome structure in Daphnia fleas, to guinea pigs. In November 1914, Cornell allowed Mrs. Andromache Papanicolaou to work alongside her husband as a voluntary technical assistant [2,8,10,11] .…”

“…This hypothesis led him to a local medical supplier from whom he obtained a nasal speculum. His plan was deceptively simple: insert the speculum into the vaginas of these small animals and with vault dilatation aspirate identifiable fluid using a thin pipette; thereafter, analyze fluids microscopically for predictable correlating characteristics [8,10].…”

“…The concept of a simple method of vaginal fluid collection and microscopic analysis emerged documenting the possibility of cytologic interpretations through vaginal fluid analysis [2,8,10] . In subsequent passages, Papanicolaou detailed distinctive epithelial cell features observed with HE staining [14] :…”