IOP Groups

Sheffield Medical Physics Team Develop Cervical Smear Probe

23 April 2005

A medical physics team, in conjunction with gynaecologists, at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have developed a novel device to determine whether patients have pre-cancerous cells in the cervix.

Currently patients who have cervical smear tests face an anxious wait of four to five weeks for the smear test to be evaluated and reported. Occasionally the collection of cells may be inadequate requiring patients to be recalled and re-tested.

In tissue cells, low frequency currents flow around cells whereas high frequency currents will flow through the cells. Changes in the arrangement, shape or internal structure of cells, as in cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia, can thus be detected by using an electrical impedance probe.

The Sheffield teamÕs electrical impedance probe is a rod, 5.5 mm in diameter, incorporating four gold electrodes mounted flush with the front surface of the probe. Data transfer is by hard-wire at the moment but they hope to develop a wireless version of the probe.

The device has many advantages over histological examination of smear tests. The most obvious is time. The probe will give an immediate indication of the presence of precancerous changes which should lead to a dramatic reduction in the time between diagnosis and treatment. For those women whose results prove negative it will eliminate the weeks of worry currently experienced between test and result.

Jeff Jones

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