Quick aspiration cytology for thyroid nodules by modified Ultrafast Papanicolaou staining

Quick cytologic diagnosis by Ultrafast Papanicolaou stain (Ultrafast stain) is useful in various neoplastic diseases; however, it has a significant drawback in that the ground-glass appearance of nuclei is a preparation artifact in some specimens from thyroid aspirations. To eliminate this artifact, the nucleus was stained with Gill-5 Hematoxylin (modified Ultrafast stain) rather than with Richard-Allan Hematoxylin 2 in Ultrafast stain. The applicability of this modified Ultrafast stain for quick diagnosis of thyroid diseases was investigated. Two specimens from each of 251 thyroid aspirations (122 malignant and 131 benign) were prepared using the modified Ultrafast stain and the standard Papanicolaou stain. The sensitivities of cytologic diagnosis in specimens stained by the standard Papanicolaou method and the modified Ultrafast method were 95.0% and 93.3%, respectively, and the specificities were 99.2% and 97.7%, respectively. The modified Ultrafast stain is a reliable procedure for quick diagnosis in thyroid aspiration cytology.