A comparative cytologic study of body fluids and urine specimens processed by simple centrifuge and millipore filter techniques

Abstract

Cyto-preparation of fluids is as important as cytodiagnosis in providing a good diagnostic service. A total of 134 fluid specimens consisting of 41 urine, 40 pleural fluid and 53 peritoneal fluid were processed by routine sediment smear and Millipore filter technique. The cytological diagnosis was categorized as suspicious, positive and negative for malignancy. Comparison of the two techniques was done with regards to recovery of cells, preservation of cell morphology, cell distribution and smear background. The differences were tested for significance by Chi-square tests. ‘P’ value less than 0.05 was considered significant. P value was significant for the parameters: celluiarity and distribution of cells for all three types of fluid. Significant difference was also observed for the parameter morphology of cells except for pleural fluid specimens. For urine specimens, morphology of cells was well preserved in 29 cases (70.7%) with Millipore filtration as compared to 12 cases (29.7%) with sediment smear technique. How ever p value was not significant (p=0.056). An additional 4 specimens (2.9%) with malignant cells were diagnosed by Millipore preparation. Although sediment smear technique is simple rapid, technical difficulties of Millipore filtration are clearly outweighed by the significant retrieval of well preserved, evenly distributed diagnostic cells. Therefore Millipore filtration can be a better option for cell concentration in fluid specimens as compared to the routine sediment smear technique.