Light micrograph of a vaginal smear stained with the Papanicolaou method. The cells are all normal squamous superficial cells with a polygonal shape, pyknotic nuclei and bluish or reddish cytoplasm, and some parabasal cells. The abundance of neutrophil leukocytes suggests an acute vaginitis. The main cause is infection by bacteria, Candida albicans yeast or the protozoan parasite Trichomonas vaginalis.