[Cytological findings on endometrial carcinoma and endometrial hyperplasia]

The usefulness of endometrial cytology was studied for the purpose of early diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma in 423 patients. In the cytological examination, 15 patients were either "suspicious" or "positive". Histological findings revealed adenomatous hyperplasia in 6, atypical hyperplasia in 3 and endometrial carcinoma in 3 patients. All of these patients with positive histological findings had "suspicious" or "positive" in cytological examination. None had false negative. "Suspicious" or "positive" endometrial cytology was delineated in histologically positive lesions including endometrial carcinoma, atypical hyperplasia and adenomatous hyperplasia. Many cells with various acinous patterns were observed in patients with diseases more serious than atypical hyperplasia. The nuclei became larger and irregular in proportion to the progression of the lesion, though hypercytochromia of the nuclear chromatin was most marked in patients with adenomatous hyperplasia. There was a significant difference in the number of nucleoli between cells of adenomatous hyperplasia and those of atypical hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma. Also, there was an apparent difference in the size and irregularity of the nucleoli between atypical hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma. Phagocytosis of white blood cells was frequently observed in patients with endometrial carcinoma. Therefore, it is believed that endometrial cytology is useful not only in screening endometrial carcinoma and related diseases but also to some degree in the estimated diagnosis of these lesions.