Publikationsdatenbank

Canine vaginal cytology:
towards a tutorial for the definition of vaginal cells (2022)

Art

Poster

Autoren

Reckers, Felix (WE 19)

Klopfleisch, Robert (WE 12)

Belik, Vitaly (WE 16)

Leber, Johanna (WE 19)

Riege, Lisa (WE 19)

Arlt, Sebastian (WE 19)

Kongress

23rd Congress of the European Veterinary Society for Small Animal Reproduction (EVSSAR)

online, 01. – 02.10.2021

Quelle

Reproduction in domestic animals = Zuchthygiene

Bandzählung: 57

Heftzählung: Supplement 2

Seiten: 7

ISSN: 0936-6768

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/rda.14066

DOI: 10.1111/rda.14066

Kontakt

Institut für Veterinär-Epidemiologie und Biometrie

Königsweg 67
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 56034
epi@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Introduction and objectives:
Vaginal cytology is an often used tool for cycle staging in the bitch. For most practitioners and vet nurses collecting a sample and staining slide are easy to perform procedures. The evaluation of the smears, however, may be challenging as some earlier projects have shown. This may be because of different definitions of canine vaginal cells, especially regarding sizes, cornification and the appearance of the nucleus published by different authors. To get a deeper insight into the use and interpretation of vaginal cytology in dogs, a survey was distributed via the Café- Repro e-mail list. The overall aim of the project was to develop a tutorial for a more standardized determination of vaginal cells.

Material and methods:
The survey was conducted using google forms. Participants were asked to define eight specific cells and answer some questions. Vaginal smears were taken, stained and digitized and evaluated from several bitches in different stages of the estrous cycle to depict all relevant types of vaginal cells. The tutorial was developed and validated by five raters of different levels of experience, i.e. two students, two veterinarians working in the field of small animal repro, and one Dipl. ECAR.

Results:
In total, 16 completed surveys were sent back from veteri-narians practicing in eight different countries and with different lev-els of experience. The agreement of the raters determining the cells was calculated with Fleiss’ Kappa (0.0 indicates an agreement not better than chance, values higher than 0.75 indicate good agreement and 1.0 perfect agreement). With κ = 0.398 the agreement of all 16 raters was poor. A second calculation was made with raters ( n = 8) who do vaginal cytology in more than 100 bitches per year. This led to a Fleiss’ Kappa of κ = 0.501. Eleven raters stated that vaginal cytology has a low reliability in the context of ovulation timing. Nevertheless, 13 out of 16 raters state that they use this tool regularly. The tutorial was developed as a flowchart. When determining a specific cell, the user is guided step by step through an evaluation of specific characteristics. By selecting the appropriate flow lines, with support of some specific illustrations showing cell characteris-tics, the user ends up at a cell type. The first validation by five par-ticipants with difference experience levels led to a Fleiss’ Kappa of κ = 0.858.

Conclusion:
Vaginal cytology is a useful diagnostic tool, but it seems helpful to standardize the determination of the cell types. The developed tutorial may support practitioners and clinicians.