AgNOR counts are useful in cervical smears.

Because they present marked cellular changes, the cytological appearances of epithelial repair may be confused with those of cancer. To see whether the Ag-NOR staining technique for nucleolar organizer regions would be useful to distinguish benign proliferative reactions (squamous metaplasia and repair) from cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN I, CIN II, and CIN III), we studied a series of cervical smears. The smears, previously stained with the Papanicolaou technique, were destained and restained with Ag-NOR silver. Significantly different (P less than 0.05) Ag-NOR counts were found in squamous metaplasia, epithelial repair, and various degrees of CIN. The Ag-NOR technique appears useful in the diagnosis of cervical cytology and particularly in cases with marked cellular change, which could be confused with neoplasia.