[Cytologic endometrial changes following high-dose iridium-192 radiation]

By intrauterine exfoliative smear performed twice in each of seventeen patients, the cytomorphologic effect of an iridium-192 after-loading irradiation was demonstrated. The examinations showed that the cytologic findings were characteristic of the effect of ionizing radiation even in case of the histologically unchanged, not radiosensitive cylindrical epithelium. After the iridium irradiation of malignantly transformed cells of the cylindrical epithelium with 1000 rd, vacuolation and pseudoeosinophilia were the predominant lesions, while after 2000 rd this was above all the presence of macronucleoli. A marked cellular diathesis is a characteristic result of the irradiation with iridium-192. Although hyperchromasia is not an absolute sign of malignancy in case of the adenocarcinoma, it should be mentioned that chromatin concentrations are scarcely found after irradiation.