History of Gynecological Cytology 1
| 1 | History of Gynecological Cytology |
Founding Period
The microscope was invented by the Dutch lens grinders Hans and Zacharias Janssen in 1600 (158) and made it possible to view objects at a magnification of 60×. This allowed the Dutch natural scientist Jan Swammerdam, some 50 years later, to study insects and erythrocytes (380). The Dutch microscopist Anton Van Leeuwenhoek in Delft achieved a magnification of 275× and, in 1678, was thus able to identify spermatozoa for the first time (196). The Estonian anatomist and embryologist Karl Ernst von Baer, in 1827, was the first to describe the human ovarian follicle (20).
The founder of clinical cytology was Johannes Müller in Berlin, who published a monograph on malignant tumor cells in 1838 (231). At about the same time, Alfred Donné in Paris discovered trichomonads in the vaginal discharge (73). In 1847, Felix Pouchet carried out studies on vaginal cells during the menstrual cycle (289). In the same year, Carl Bruch in Heidelberg published an atlas of tumor cytology (45), and Lionel Beale in London published his atlas of sputum cytology in 1860 (25). In 1855, Rudolf Virchow of Berlin presented his textbook Zellularpathologie (Cellular Pathology) (395).
Following these early works, a large number of publications appeared throughout Europe and in the United States, predominantly in the fields of urinary cytology (61), effusion cytology (295), and cytology of the bronchial and gastrointestinal tracts (126, 141). At the same time, the cytology of needle puncture and aspiration (209) as well as hematological cytology developed (86). Apart from iso lated observations during the founding period of cytology, gynecological cytology in the narrow sense started with George Papanicolaou in 1943.
Pioneer Period
George N. Papanicolaou (Fig. 1.1
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