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A simple technique to improve recovery and morphology of cells exfoliated into fluids
A H Deshpande1, S Nayak, S Harpale
1Department of Pathology Superspecialty Hospital, Government Medical College, Nagpur, India.
Objective:
To devise a simple, inexpensive and effective method for the cytologic study of fluids and to compare the results of the method with the conventional centrifuge smear (CS) method.
Study Design:
We examined 200 fluid samples from various body sites using CS and thick and thin (TT) smears. Cellular yield, cytomorphology and background of the smears were studied and scored. The scores were compared and analyzed with the chi 2 test.
Results:
TT smears gave a higher cellular yield, better morphologic details and cleaner background. The values of all three features were statistically significant (P < .001). In 38 cases a definitive diagnosis could be made on TT smears and not on CS smears.
Conclusion:
TT smears give significantly better results than CS smears. Simple to prepare and requiring no additional investment in terms of cost, technical skill and sophisticated instruments, this method is ideally suited to small laboratories, especially in developing countries.