Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
which varied from the morning to the afternoon. One common strategy
when samples were diffi cult to classify was to put the sample aside until the
next morning:
Mmm, this here is an SOI case. Yes, sleep on it. I'll look at that one when
I am not tired, it is often best …
(Maria, Cyto lab)
What was diffi cult to assess could vary from day to day as well. Regardless
of day-to-day variations of cells the cytodiagnosticians were generally clear
about what affected these variations and also the general aim of their work:
… you have sort of different days too. Sometimes you're maybe a little
more alert than other days, you are maybe a little tired some days, can
be that it is morning or afternoon. Sometimes late in the afternoon,
you fi nd something, vaginal smear, you mark it 'this is something, but
I can't decide what'. Ehh, then I leave it until the next day. Everyone
does it, more or less. You leave it until the next morning, then you look
again. Then it is much clearer, than if you are tired in the afternoon (…)
because I certainly want to decide for certain, and I don't think that I
am just speaking for myself, but for most of us, nearly all. To be able to
decide the right diagnosis from the start, that I sign out the request form
on the computer (…) Yes, I want to feel sort of that, when it comes from
me, that it will be as correct as possible.
(Beatrice, Cyto lab)
The work with assessing and classifying cells is thus performed by subjects
who present themselves as well aware of themselves
qua
classifi ers, and
as having various strategies for making their interpretations as correct as
possible.
Discussion and concluding comments
It is commonly accepted that cytology samples - of which the Pap smear
test is perhaps the most widely known - have signifi cance for the detection,
diagnosis and/or prevention of cancer diseases. It is perhaps less well known
how
such work is performed. The cytology laboratory is a place where
the boundaries of normality, and between normality and abnormality, are
established on the level of cells; here cells via the microscope as mediator
are interpreted and ascribed cultural meaning, and here the inside of the
laboratory and the outside world meet and diverge. Ethnographic approaches
are well suited to exploring this work at the site where it is performed.
Assessing and classifying cells, as my fi eldwork shows, is more complex
than one might assume, and has several layers of meaning. Screening cytology
down the microscope, for example, 'embraces the whole body' and involves
