Utility ofcervicovaginal cytology was assessed in detection of recurrence of cervical carcinoma in women treated with radiation. The study comprised of 387 women attending Gynaecology O.P.D. of Queen Mary's Hospital, Lucknow, between January 1992 to December 1999 in whom difterent stages of cancer cervix were diagnosed clinically and confired histologically Cytological follow-up ranging from 6 months to 7 years revealed 32 cases of recurrent carcinoma (9.2%) and 11 cases of small cell carcinoma which appeared to be cases of persistent carcinoma. Only 28.2% of recurrent carcinomas were found to be symptomatic or had any lesion on the cervix. Recurrence of cervical cancer was higher after 6-7 years and in women beyond 40 years of age. Cytology appears to be valuable tool in detecting recurrence of cervical carcinoma even when there is no clinical sign or symptom. It cautions the clinicians before hand of recurrence and thus facilitates better chances of survival of the patient.

An attempt was made to perform fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) on testis. A total 50 patients having symptoms & signs related to testicular pathology were subjected to FNAC. Out of these 50 cases, 16 cases were of non-neoplastic (inflammatory) pathology, 25 cases of neoplastic pa thology and remaining 9 cases were of infertility. Out of 16 cases of non-neoplastic pathology, 2 had acute epididymo-orchitis, 2 had tubercular pathology and remaining 12 cases had chronic non specific inflammatory lesions. Out of 25 cases of neoplastic pathology 18 were of seminoma, 1 each of teratocarcinoma & embryonal cell carcinoma and in 5 cases smear was malignant but exact typing was not possible. Nine cases of infertility on which FNAC was performed showed that I had normal spematogenesis, 2 had maturation arrest and in 6 results were inconclusive

Ten cases suspected to be vasoformative tumours on aspiration cytology were reviewed and correlated with histology. Patients presented with no specific clinical features including age, sex and site. Giemsa stained smears were hypercellularin all the cases. Loose cohesive clusters of round to oval cells, prominent branching vascular channels and pink stromal material were the predominant cytological features. Features suggestive of angiogenesis i.e., tumour cells in parallel rows on stromal scaffold, double rows of highly atypical spindle cells branching out in various directions and atypical endothelial cells were present in smears from three cases histologically confirmed as angiosarcoma. Two cases diagnosed as vasoformative tumour on cytology were metastatic renal cell carcinoma and skin adnexal tumor on histology. Tumours mimicking vasoformative pattern will remain a diagnostic pitfall. The preliminary information on the nature of the lesion helps in judicious selection of antibody panel for confirmation.

In many clinical situations it is unrealistic and, indeed, impossible to have a “gold standard“ measurement. Consequently, it is not possible to characterise diagnostic tests. Various strategies can be undertaken to handle this problem. One of the popular methods is to use latent class analysis. This paper describes the principles and logic of latent class analysis. The paper demonstrates the use of latent class modelling on real data. The paper also discusses some limitations of latent class analysis. We recommend that if the assumptions and requirements of latent class modelling are met, this procedure should be used for evaluating the performance of diagnostic tests when three or more diagnostic tests have been simultaneously conducted on all study subjects and when a gold standard measurement does not exist

A case of hepatic angiosarcoma diagnosed by fine needle aspiration biopsy is documented for its rarity. Angiosarcoma (AS) of liver constitutes only 2% of primary liver tumours. Since it presents either as an extensive lesion or as a solitary mass, the chances of getting a good cell yield for cytologic diagnosis are very high. Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is a specific and sensitive technique for diagnosing hepatic malignancies and is a safe procedure especially if conducted under ultrasonographic guidance.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis, a proliferative dendritic cell lesion, seen most commonly in children with involvement of bones, frequently skull bones, was studied in a 2 year old boy. The clinical presentation was typical of the lesion. The fine needle aspiration was done which was further confirmed by biopsy. The characteristic cytomorphological and histopathological features were studied and correlation was made with review of literature

Tophi are the hall mark of gout. These are rarely aspirated because of classical clinico-radiological features. Cytopathologistmaybe asked to confirm the clinical diagnosis. We present a case of gout where aspiration smears showed needle like crystals of monosodium urate. Polarized microscopy confirmed the cytologic diagnosis of gout.

This case study presents an extraordinary clinical and pathologic phenomenon in a 42 year female, whose peripheral blood and bone marrow were diagnostic of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) and who had generalised enlargement of lymph nodes. FNA of the lymph nodes revealed that a Myeloblasts transformation to acute leukemia was taking place in the lymph nodes. This study shows the importance of FNA in the diagnosis of localised extramedullar (lymph node) blast crisis in CML.