Cervical smear tests. New and old equipment for the collection of cells from the uterine cervix during a Pap (Papanicolaou) test. The old equipment comprises a wooden spatula used to collect the sample and smear it onto a microscope slide. The new equipment (for a ThinPrep Pap test) comprises a scraper with many small projections and a bottle of preservative solution into which the cells are transferred. The advantage of this new system is that the entire sample can be used and the cells are spread thinly on a slide in the laboratory. This improves the detection rate of abnormalities, such as cervical cancer.