English

Abstract

Early detection is crucial in diagnosis and treatment of upper gastro intestinal (GI) lesions. GI malignancy may be suspected on clinical grounds and by imaging techniques; however cytohistologic evaluation of lesional tissue is necessary to provide a definitive diagnosis before treatment is initiated. Lesions of esophagus constitute a major part of upper GI pathology encountered in practice and patients present with complaints of dysphagia or reflux. Cytological diagnostic techniques including brush and touch imprint cytology are gaining popularity. The biopsy forceps can obtain material deeper than the brush and touch imprints made from them provide more information, besides providing material for histological examination. The present study provides an insight into application of imprint cytology in esophageal endoscopic biopsies. The results of imprint cytology were correlated with standard histopathology. In this study of 45 biopsies; sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of 94.3%, 100%, 95.6% were recorded respectively which are higher than those of brush cytology recorded in various studies. Methods of reporting GI cytology have also been discussed besides discussing the pitfalls and limitations. Awareness of pitfalls will improve diagnostic accuracy and prevent false-positive and negative diagnosis.