Cytological survey of bronchial brushings and aspirations performed during fiberoptic bronchoscopy

In this series of 342 cases of bronchial carcinoma diagnosed by fiberoptic cytology (brushing and aspiration), comparison with the endoscopic findings gave the following results:--As regards primary carcinomas, 91 per cent of the cases in which the tumour was visible had a positive cytology when brushing was used and 84 per cent with aspiration. 79 per cent of the cases with no visible tumour but with suspicious changes of the bronchial wall had a positive cytology with brushing and 71 per cent with aspiration. When no abnormality could be seen by fiberoptics, positive cytologies dropped to 47 per cent and 50 per cent respectively.--In case of metastatic carcinoma the results are not as good. However, brushings gave 87 per cent positivity when the tumour was visible with the fibroscope and aspiration 75 per cent. Such cases are rather unfrequent unfortunately. Suspicious lesions at the fibroscope examination yielded respectively 68 and 64 per cent positivity. While in cases with no abnormality seen with the fibroscope brushings gave a 29 per cent positivity and aspirations a 25 per cent. No false positives were made. Correlation with histology and comparison with sputum cytology will be commented upon.