[Urinary cytology in tumors of the urinary tract]

Views on the usefulness of urinary cytology and the best methodological technic differ widely. We perform the examination with spontaneously voided urine; after centrifugation, a smear of the sediment is Papanicolaou-stained. With this method 15 patients were found over a two-year period to have a tumor of the urinary tract or a positive urinary cytology. In 13 patients a tumor was diagnosed; of these 10 had a positive, 1 a questionable and 2 a false negative cytology. In 2 patients the cytology was false positive. Retrospective reexamination of the two false negative results revealed unequivocally malignant cells. One of the two false positive results was confirmed retrospectively and the second could not be checked. The sensitivity of the method was 84.6% and the specificity for unequivocally positive cytologies was 83.3%. Provided the examination is performed by an experienced cytologist, urinary cytology is a useful method which is suitable as a screening test in hematuria and for regular checks in high risk patients (e.g. with analgesic nephropathy).