ROLE OF IMPRINT CYTOLOGY IN BREAST LESIONS

Abstract

Background: Rapid cytological diagnosis of various tumors and especially that of breast was first introduced by Dudgeon and Patrick 1927.The accuracy of the imprint method has been increasing over the years both in breast pathology and in other body sites, indeed the average accuracy of (90-94%) in the past has reached (97-98%) in recent years. Objective: A prospective study was performed to determine the value of this technique in the diagnosis of male and female patients with various breast lesions.Methods: From June 2005 and February 2006 Imprint cytology was obtained from (110) specimens of (107) patients with various breast lesions in Sulaimania teaching hospital. Cytological examinations of imprints stained by hematoxiline and eosin stain were examined and compared to histological results to detect its sensitivity, specificity and accuracy rate. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of imprint cytology for both benign and malignant breast lesions were 96.3% and 100% respectively; while over all accuracy was 98.9%. False negative diagnosis was seen in a single case of Paget’s disease of the nipple (0.9%); however no false positive cases were found. The cytological diagnosis were malignant in 26 cases (23.7%), including (25) primary malignant tumors and (1) metastatic carcinoma, benign diagnoses were encountered in 71 cases (64.5%), suspicious in 4 cases (3.6%) and unsatisfactory in 9 cases (8.2%). Conclusion: Imprint cytology is simple, rapid, inexpensive and accurate method for intraoperative diagnosis of breast lesions and can be used as adjunct to frozen section.Key words: Imprint cytology, breast lesion