[Cytologic diagnosis of mediastinal diseases]

The diagnosis of mediastinal tumors is based on morphological findings, on cytological among other things. Results of cytologic diagnosis of tumors of the anterior mediastinum in 79 patients are analyzed. Malignant thymomas were diagnosed by this method in 41 patients. The method verified the following thymoma variants: lymphoepithelial in 19 (46.3%), granulomatous in 7 (17.1%), spindle-cell in 2 (4.9%), lymphoid in 1 (2.4%), and malignant thymoma of an undefined form in 12 (29.3%). No surgery was carried out in 21 cases because the patients refused from it or their condition was grave. Treatment of these patients was based on the cytological findings. Results of cytological studies are compared with histological findings. The efficacy of the cytological method was 93.7%.