Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
however, increase their screening speed on demand as this was an individual
ability, and as meticulousness
was emphasised as
the
most important aspect
of screening. It should be noted, however, that a large infl ux of cytology
samples was not merely seen as negative. One of the major components in
becoming skilled in cytology, according to all cytodiagnosticians, was to 'see
much' and screen a large number of cytology samples.
The cytodiagnosticians performed screening while sitting down. Their
head and neck were kept still, and the upper body was tilted slightly
forward, with their underarms resting directly on the desk, on arm supports
with 'sheepskin', or on sheepskin directly on the table. This position was
something all my informants had become accustomed to, although they
remembered many kinds of diffi culties in the beginning, as described by
Anna at Cyto lab:
… before one got used to microscopy, on the whole. Sitting and keeping
your head still and (…) Setting the ocular correctly and (…) Above all
holding your head still. I usually lean a little, against this, so that I have
a hollow here under my right eye. I get a little support ...
Screening cytology meant looking straight forward, fi xing the eyes in
the middle while seeing the cells with their wide-angle vision, and keeping
one's head and eyes still, while moving and stopping the slide with a steering
control on the microscope stage. During screening, it was necessary to have a
sharply focused picture of the cells. The sharpness was adjusted continuously
during screening with the focusing control on the microscope (which was
moved back and forth with fi ne-tuned dexterity): for example, when the
cells were laying on top of each other instead of as a single layer (called
'monolayer' in the lab vernacular). The sharpness
in the microscope was
adjusted in order to scrutinise the cells at the different levels of depth on the
microscope slide. This adjustment during screening was often described as
an 'inbuilt routine'.
Besides looking at all cells by means of adjusting the sharpness of
the picture, the cytodiagnosticians did what they called 'overlapping'.
Overlapping was described as a compulsory 'system' or a 'routine' to look
at all the cells, which was accomplished by moving the slide back and forth
between the edges of the slide, and very slightly sideward, in a zig-zag
movement while always keeping one part of the previous fi eld of vision
within the new one:
… in fact, you look at all of the cells twice. Because you must work all
the time with a little 'overlapping', it's called overlapping. You go fi rst
straight over the slide, turn, and move [the microscope slide] a little to
the side. And then straight over the slide again, and then move it when
you get to the edge up and down the slide. You have to have a system,
so that you can look at
all
of the cells (…) now I have gone right across
