Trial of new cervical spatula.

A trial comparing the relative values of the 'Armovical' and Ayre's spatulae showed a significant improvement of the former over the latter in sampling endocervical epithelium. No such difference was found in their ability to detect epithelial atypia. However, it was confirmed that if (at each attendance of a patient) the cervix was sampled twice instead of once the incidence of atypical smears was increased.