Fine needle aspiration biopsy of the liver

There were investigated 51 patients admitted with suspicion of chronic hepatitis and secondary tumours of the liver. In all cases, fine needle aspiration biopsy was performed, and smears were fixed by drying and stained with BPT-Dragan and May Grunwald-Giemsa. In chronic hepatitis, the needle aspiration biopsy has a limited importance in the diagnosis because it cannot notice architectural features. The nucleo-cytoplasmic lesions are better observed. In secondary tumours of the liver, the aspiration biopsy, through simplicity and fidelity, represents the main method in the diagnosis. Cytological results were compared with histological ones. On smears we observed hepatocytes and atypical cells.