Reply to Ancillary techniques on direct-smear aspirate slides: A significant evolution for cytopathology techniques.

摘要

We thank da Cunha Santos et al for their interest in our commentary, and agree that the use of FTA cards is most likely a sound choice for long-term DNA storage. In our experience, the use of Diff-Quik- stained cytologic smears, stored for years, is also satisfactory for the isolation of high-quality DNA. Several points deserve clarification regarding these methods.As the authors point out, the breakage of slides during transport is a potential issue; nonetheless, careful packing of slides can prevent this and we do not believe that this is a serious drawback to the use of smears.With regard to the possible problem with the stability of unstained smears, we acknowledge heat and humidity as potential problematic issues.