Abstract
Cytological smear and cell block (CB) are routinely used to diagnose non-gynaecologic specimens. However, there is scanty information in the literature to compare cytological smear and CB with the corresponding tissue biopsies. This study is aimed at evaluating the accuracy of cytological smear and CB in the diagnosis of malignant tumours in non-gynaecologic specimens. A total of 70 malignant cases were subjected to cytological smear and CB. Corresponding histopathology was also included. The most frequent immunomarkers found between CB and tissue biopsies were also correlated. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, false positive and false negative values were analyzed for each method. The accuracy, sensitivity and positive predictive value for cytological smear were 92.8%, 100.0% and 92.9%, whereas for CB were 91.4%, 98.4% and 92.7%, respectively. In CB method, the accuracy, sensitivity and positive predictive value for CK7 were 88.9%, 91.7% and 95.6%, whereas for CK5/6 were 75%, 100% and 57.1%, respectively. Cytological smear and CB are very sensitive and accurate in the detection of malignant tumours in nongynaecologic specimens. Additional corresponding tissue biopsies should be re-evaluated.
Highlights
Cytological smears and cell blocks (CB) play important roles in the diagnosis of non-gynaecological cytopathology specimens such as urine, abdominal, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), cyst fluid, sputum, synovial, pleural and pericardial fluid
There were 52 cases diagnosed as malignancy and 13 as suspicious of malignancy with sensitivity of 100% and no false negative cases
In CB, there were 56 cases diagnosed as malignancy and 13 as suspicious of malignancy with sensitivity of 98.4%, one case was diagnosed falsely as benign and five cases were diagnosed as malignancy while they were benign
Summary
Cytological smears and cell blocks (CB) play important roles in the diagnosis of non-gynaecological cytopathology specimens such as urine, abdominal (ascetic, peritoneal), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), cyst fluid, sputum, synovial, pleural and pericardial fluid. Multiple sections form CB can be used for special stains and immunocytochemistry methods Those methods increase the sensitivity of the cytodiagnosis of malignant yield when compared with the cytological smear method [3]. Cytological smear and cell block (CB) are routinely used to diagnose non-gynaecologic specimens. There is scanty information in the literature to compare cytological smear and CB with the corresponding tissue biopsies. This study is aimed at evaluating the accuracy of cytological smear and CB in the diagnosis of malignant tumours in non-gynaecologic specimens. RESULTS: The accuracy, sensitivity and positive predictive value for cytological smear were 92.8%, 100.0% and 92.9%, whereas for CB were 91.4%, 98.4% and 92.7%, respectively.
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