Doctors at the Coombe and St James's hospitals have described the introduction of two new cervical testing technologies as a "major breakthrough" in detecting cervical cancer.
The hospitals have acquired the first machine for cervical screening in the Republic. They expect it to significantly improve the accuracy of testing which is normally done manually.
Up to 15 per cent of manual tests give false clearance to the patients who may later present with cervical cancer. But the new computer-aided system is expected to reduce this rate to below 3 per cent. A spokesman at the Coombe Hospital said that in the right circumstances 1 per cent could be achieved.
The system is faster than the human eye and has the ability to scan 300 slides every 40 hours. Abnormal cells, if present, will appear on a screen and allow a decision to be made in about 90 seconds, compared to eight minutes for manual screening.
Identifying cervical cancer is time-consuming and open to error, which makes the technology used by cytopathologists extremely important.
The other major development is the introduction of a new smear collection process called the Thin Prep Test, developed by a US company, Cytyc Corporation.
It allows for greater accuracy in detection because the content of the smear is held in a preservative fluid which can then be examined microscopically. According to US research, the use of the test can improve detection by between 30 and 40 per cent.
Under the current smear testing procedure, some abnormal cells may not end up on the slide being examined. The new machine is being tested and will undergo a full trial from Monday. A report will be compiled over the next few months, analysing its performance.
The two hospitals currently test 20,000 women a year for cervical cancer, which can be treated successfully if detected in time.
The Master of the Coombe Women's Hospital, Dr Sean Daly, said the new technologies would "reduce the chance of human error as well as allowing us to fasttrack abnormal smears".