Search

Background: Endometrial aspiration (EA) is an economic, painless technique on an outpatient basis. Present study aimed at cytological evaluation of EA for (a) cellular yield and morphology and (b) utility of cell block (CB) and cytocentrifuge (CC) techniques. Materials and Methods: EA samples were divided into two aliquots. Colorless samples were processed (1000 rpm × 6 min) for conventional smear (CS) and CC, both stained by Papanicolaou. Hemorrhagic samples were processed for CS and CB (paraffin embedding, hematoxylin–eosin stain). Results: Endometrial aspirates from January 2021 to January 2022 were included. Indications comprised abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB; 87), prolapse (eight), and infertility (two). Among 77 hemorrhagic aspirates, the yield was 85.7% by CS and 90.9% by CB. Among 20 colorless aspirates, the yield was 55% by CS and 65% by CC. The yield was 85.7%, 84.4%, and 83.3% with endometrial thickness 1–5, 6–10, and 11–15 mm, respectively. The yield was 83.9%, 50%, and 0% in AUB, prolapse, and infertility, respectively. CS morphology showed the categories of benign (93.5%) and atypia (6.5%). All cases with benign morphology correlated with CB and CC. CB offered architectural evaluation, while CC had a shorter turnaround time. Conclusion: Focusing on menorrhagia cases in secretory phase, nondilution of EA samples, and simultaneous endometrial biopsy can enhance cytology evaluation. In an era where "less should convey more," EA shows potential as a screening technique vis-à -vis invasive "dilatation–curettage" technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cigarette smoke contains thousands of identified chemicals, among which sixty-nine (69) of these chemicals are known to be poisonous to humans and are capable of causing cancer in any part of the body. This study was conducted to evaluate the cytology of urinary cells among active and passive cigarette smokers in South-Western Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Urine samples were collected from 250 active cigarette smokers and 200 passive cigarette smokers who live in South-Western, Nigeria. The urine specimen was collected from participants and processed using the standard technique for microscopic examination. Smears were stained with haematoxylin and eosin and Papanicolaou stain. Results: The urinary smears of passive cigarette smokers revealed normal superficial squamous cells, transitional cells, cast, necrotic debris and mild inflammatory cells, while that of active cigarette smokers revealed high cellular turnover, protein casts, dysplastic epithelial cells and atypical urothelial cells with degenerative features. Conclusion: On the basis of this study, the cytomorphological analysis of urinary smears among active cigarette smokers revealed cytopathological features which connote the harmful effects of the chemical constituents present in cigarette smoke.

Background: Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important risk factor for some cancers and the second leading risk factor for death in the world. This study was conducted to evaluate the immunocytochemical expression of AE1/AE3 and cytokeratin 20 (CK20) in the urinary cells of cigarette smokers in South-West, Nigeria. Methods: Urine samples were collected from 250 cigarette smokers and 200 noncigarette smokers in South-West, Nigeria. A questionnaire was administered to subjects before specimen collection. About 10 ml of urine samples were collected from every subject into a clean sterile universal bottle, thereafter transferred into a clean test tube and spun with a cytocentrifuge for the use of staining with immunocytochemical biomarkers (AE1/AE3 and CK20). Results: Immunocytochemical staining carried out on the urine smears of cigarette smokers revealed that 2.8% of the samples expressed AE1/AE3, while 1.1% expressed CK20. None of the urinary smears of nonsmokers expressed AE1/AE3 and CK20. Furthermore, being cigarette smokers did not strongly influence the expression of AE1/AE3 and CK20 in the urine of cigarette smokers. Conclusion: Based on the outcome of this study, cigarette smoking has been seen to be one of the leading causes of renal diseases and one of the major causes of cancer among cigarette smokers.

Introduction: Cigarette smoke contains thousands of identified chemicals, among which sixty-nine (69) of these chemicals are known to be poisonous to humans and are capable of causing cancer in any part of the body. This study was conducted to evaluate the cytology of urinary cells among active and passive cigarette smokers in South-Western Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Urine samples were collected from 250 active cigarette smokers and 200 passive cigarette smokers who live in South-Western, Nigeria. The urine specimen was collected from participants and processed using the standard technique for microscopic examination. Smears were stained with haematoxylin and eosin and Papanicolaou stain. Results: The urinary smears of passive cigarette smokers revealed normal superficial squamous cells, transitional cells, cast, necrotic debris and mild inflammatory cells, while that of active cigarette smokers revealed high cellular turnover, protein casts, dysplastic epithelial cells and atypical urothelial cells with degenerative features. Conclusion: On the basis of this study, the cytomorphological analysis of urinary smears among active cigarette smokers revealed cytopathological features which connote the harmful effects of the chemical constituents present in cigarette smoke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important risk factor for some cancers and the second leading risk factor for death in the world. This study was conducted to evaluate the immunocytochemical expression of AE1/AE3 and cytokeratin 20 (CK20) in the urinary cells of cigarette smokers in South-West, Nigeria. Methods: Urine samples were collected from 250 cigarette smokers and 200 noncigarette smokers in South-West, Nigeria. A questionnaire was administered to subjects before specimen collection. About 10 ml of urine samples were collected from every subject into a clean sterile universal bottle, thereafter transferred into a clean test tube and spun with a cytocentrifuge for the use of staining with immunocytochemical biomarkers (AE1/AE3 and CK20). Results: Immunocytochemical staining carried out on the urine smears of cigarette smokers revealed that 2.8% of the samples expressed AE1/AE3, while 1.1% expressed CK20. None of the urinary smears of nonsmokers expressed AE1/AE3 and CK20. Furthermore, being cigarette smokers did not strongly influence the expression of AE1/AE3 and CK20 in the urine of cigarette smokers. Conclusion: Based on the outcome of this study, cigarette smoking has been seen to be one of the leading causes of renal diseases and one of the major causes of cancer among cigarette smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cytological evaluation of body fluids is an important diagnostic technique. Cytocentrifuge has contributed immensely to improve the diagnostic yield of the body fluids. Cytocentrifuge requires a filter card for absorbing the cell free fluid. This is the only consumable which needs to be purchased from the manufacturer at a significant cost. Aim: To compare the cell density in cytocentrifuge preparations made from commercially available filter cards with custom made filter cards. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective analytical study undertaken in department of pathology of a tertiary care centre. A 300 GSM handmade paper with the absorbability similar to the conventional card was obtained and fashioned to suit the filter card slot of the cytospin. Thirty seven body fluids were centrifuged using both conventional and custom made filter card. The cell density was measured as number of cells per 10 high power fields. The median cell density was compared using Mann-Whitney U test. The agreement between the values was analysed using Bland Altman analysis. Results: The median cell count per 10 High power field (HPF) with conventional card was 386 and that with custom made card was 408. The difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.66). There was no significant difference in the cell density and alteration in the morphology between the cell preparations using both the cards. Conclusion: Custom made filter card can be used for cytospin cell preparations of body fluids without loss of cell density or alteration in the cell morphology and at a very low cost.

Background Smears prepared by cytocentrifugation, the so-called cytospins, are widely used in human and veterinary cytology. However, the high cost has hampered the availability of commercial cytospin centrifuges in some veterinary clinics and laboratories. Nevertheless, cytospins are important for evaluating fluids with very low cellularity such as cerebrospinal fluid ( CSF) or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid ( BALF). Objectives The aim of this study was to devise and test the use of a low-cost, in-house manual cytocentrifuge to obtain cytospin preparations. Methods Twenty-two fluid samples (including CSF and BALF) were collected from dogs and cats. These were processed in a conventional cytocentrifuge and in an in-house, manual centrifuge (salad spinner). The cytospins obtained by the 2 methods were compared by scoring cellularity, number of cells per field, hemodilution, cell preservation, and proportion of ruptured cells. Additionally, cell number and size were compared by morphometry. Differences between the automated and manual method were statistically assessed. Results The morphology and cellular detail of cytospin preparations produced by both methods were identical. There was an almost perfect agreement for cellularity, number of cells per HPF, hemodilution and cell preservation (kappa ≥ 0.85), and a moderate agreement for the amount of ruptured cells. Cell recovery was comparable (including in CSF and BALF). Conclusions The manual cytocentrifuge produced cytospins with similar cell yield as the automated cytocentrifuge. Considering the low cost and portability, this new method should be particularly useful for cytologic diagnosis in small clinics, developing countries, and in field studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Murine bone marrow smear examination can be requested as a supplemental parameter to assist in the identification of hematotoxic effects of a new compound or to confirm known target biology on hematopoiesis. Cellular heterogeneity and the presence of cells at variable developmental stages challenges the identification of cell lineages and the accurate interpretation of cytomorphologic changes even in an ideally processed and stained bone marrow slide preparation. Optimal microscopic evaluation of bone marrow is predicated on a standardized technique for quality sample collection, slide preparation, cellular fixation, and staining. To determine an optimal protocol for murine bone marrow slide preparation, potential factors influencing slide quality were examined including: method of cell harvest, smear preparation technique, interval from sample collection to processing, addition/absence of protein, and tinctorial characteristics of standard cytochemical stains. This research communication describes the effect of these tested variables on bone marrow slide quality and outlines an optimized procedure to prepare murine bone marrow smears for cytologic evaluation using a cytocentrifugation technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cases of gout with a low synovial fluid (SF) leukocyte count and atypical clinical presentation, such as in intercritical periods, the load of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals is frequently low, and thus, methods to improve the crystal detection may be beneficial. We compared the MSU crystal detection rates between cytospin slides and common smear preparations in low-cellular (<2,000/μl) SF samples of patients with gout. We determined the number of MSU crystals/15 high power fields (HPF) at × 1,000 magnification by polarised microscopy in cytospin preparations and smears in SF samples of 17 patients with MSU-crystal-proven gout and compared the two methods statistically. All of the cytospin slides (100 %) contained MSU crystals and showed a median number of 124 crystals/15 HPF (range 2-3,915), whereas 5 of the 17 smears (29 %) were MSU-crystal-negative, with a median count of 2 crystals/15 HPF (range 0-430/HPF). The difference was statistically highly significant ( p < 0.0001). In conclusion, we have shown that the cytospin technique is superior to smears in the detection of MSU crystals in SF with a low SF leukocyte count. In light of our observations, we recommend the use of cytocentrifuges for routine crystal analysis in such cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In synovial fluids (SF) with low leukocyte or/and crystal counts, important features may be missed, if exclusively smears are examined by polarized microscopy. That may be overcome by cytocentrifuges, which use low-speed centrifugal force to concentrate cells onto a glass slide and thus enhance the number of cells per high power field (HPF). We compared the calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystal counts in cytospin preparations with those in common smears of SF. The number of CPP crystals was counted in 50 SF samples by polarized microscopy, and statistical comparisons of the mean values of the cytospin and smear preparations were performed using the Wilcoxon test. The reproducibility within the slides of the cytocentrifuge and smear samples was determined by Spearman's rank correlation. The crystal counts were significantly higher in the cytospin than in the smear preparations (median 96/10 HPF vs. 2.5/10 HPF, p < 0.0001). The correlation in the crystal count between the slides 1 and 2 was significantly higher within the cytocentrifuge than in the smear group (0.97 vs. 0.73, p = 0.0004). CPP-negative cytospin preparations in initially smear-positive slides were not observed. We confirmed that the cytospin technique significantly enhances the number of examinable crystals per HPF, compared to common smears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staging and monitoring of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) includes examination of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). At our institution, we noted an increased incidence of low-level leukemic blasts in CSF samples from patients with ALL. This increase coincided with a conversion from the Shandon CytoSpin 4 (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA) to the Wescor Cytopro Rotor AC-060 (Wescor, Logan, UT). This study directly compared these 2 machines using patient samples and known concentrations of cultured leukemia cells. With patient samples, the Wescor Cytopro led to a 5- to 9-fold increase in the number of cells on a slide compared with the Shandon CytoSpin; furthermore, leukemic blasts were detected only with the Wescor Cytopro in 2 cases. Similar findings were observed using cultured leukemia cells. Thus, the detection of blasts in CSF is highly instrument-dependent. The newer, more sensitive cytocentrifuge machines identify blasts that were previously missed by older machines, but the clinical significance remains under investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Collegium Antropologicum is the property of Croatian Anthropological Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Introduction: Cytological evaluation of body fluids is an important diagnostic technique. Cytocentrifuge has contributed immensely to improve the diagnostic yield of the body fluids. Cytocentrifuge requires a filter card for absorbing the cell free fluid. This is the only consumable which needs to be purchased from the manufacturer at a significant cost. Aim: To compare the cell density in cytocentrifuge preparations made from commercially available filter cards with custom made filter cards. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective analytical study undertaken in department of pathology of a tertiary care centre. A 300 GSM handmade paper with the absorbability similar to the conventional card was obtained and fashioned to suit the filter card slot of the cytospin. Thirty seven body fluids were centrifuged using both conventional and custom made filter card. The cell density was measured as number of cells per 10 high power fields. The median cell density was compared using Mann-Whitney U test. The agreement between the values was analysed using Bland Altman analysis. Results: The median cell count per 10 High power field (HPF) with conventional card was 386 and that with custom made card was 408. The difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.66). There was no significant difference in the cell density and alteration in the morphology between the cell preparations using both the cards. Conclusion: Custom made filter card can be used for cytospin cell preparations of body fluids without loss of cell density or alteration in the cell morphology and at a very low cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the general principles of cytocentrifuge, a simplified device has been designed, by which the cells in suspension can be concentrated and spread monolayerly onto a focal area on a microscope slide in one operation. The morphological details of the cells are well preserved. This simplified cytocentrifuge has been applied clinically for several years. It has proved to be a useful tool in concentrating scanty neoplastic cells, abnormal and normal cells such as those in cerebrospinal fluid, ascites, urine and some other cell suspensions for cytological evaluation. The detective rate of specimens is highly increased, and much time can be saved, as compared with the traditional methods. The device has been simplified in structure and can De easily installed in an ordinary electrical centrifuge. In contrast to the same sort of tool used both abroad and at home, it is much cheaper and more convenient in clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are only a few studies dealing with the detection and clinical impact of calcium pyrophosphate (CPPD) crystals in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) published to date. In particular, data determined by the cytospin technique, which is an effective tool to enhance the crystal detection rate, are lacking. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of CPPD crystals in the synovial fluid (SF) of patients with RA and to investigate whether the detection of CPPD crystals is correlated with demographic, clinical and serological features. We examined 113 consecutive SF samples of patients with RA, obtained from therapeutic arthrocentesis of knee joints. After cytocentrifugation, the sediments were examined by polarized microscopy for the occurrence of CPPD crystals. Demographic, clinical and serological data, acquired from the medical records, were compared between crystal-positive and crystal-negative subjects. CPPD crystals were observed in 20 of the 113 cases, representing 17.7 %. CPPD-positive and CPPD-negative subjects did not differ significantly in sex, duration of disease, Steinbrocker radiologic stage, disease activity score 28, as well as serum rheumatoid factor and anti-CCP positivity. Patients positively tested for CPPD crystals had a significantly higher age than CPPD-negative patients ( p < 0.0001). An age-independent association of long-time treatment with diuretics and CPPD crystal formation was not found. In conclusion, demographic, clinical and serological characteristics of patients with RA were not associated with the occurrence of CPPD crystals. Age was the only significant influencing factor on CPPD crystal formation in patients with RA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: At diagnosis, there are prognostic implications of low-level leukemic blasts (CNS 2) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, the significance of post-induction CNS 2 results and the impact of equipment on CNS 2 prevalence have not been well studied., Procedure: A single-institution retrospective cohort study was conducted to analyze the outcome of patients with ≥1 post-induction CNS 2. A subanalysis compared the proportion of CNS 2 CSF results using 2 different cytocentrifuges; the Shandon Cytospin used from 2005 to 2008 and the Wescor Cytopro used from 2010 to 2014., Results: Over 4500 post-induction CSF samples were analyzed, of which 59 were CNS 2. In covariate-adjusted analyses, post-induction CNS 2 did not significantly increase relapse risk. The proportion of CNS 2 results increased 4.3-fold in noninfants and 6.3-fold in infants using the Wescor Cytopro. Cytocentrifuge machine did not affect CNS 3 prevalence., Conclusions: These findings support our current practice of not changing management based on a post-induction CNS 2 CSF and highlight how equipment changes can significantly influence testing results. More data are needed to analyze relapse by subpopulations, such as those with repeated CNS 2 findings., (© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

DNA damage foci such as ionizing radiation-induced foci (IRIF) can visually distinguish the location and number of specific types of DNA damages. This method is widely used to detect DNA damage in interphase cells. These DNA damage foci can be also visualized on metaphase chromosomes. The technique has an advantage as it provides an easy method of quantifying chromosomal DNA damage. Radiation-induced DNA double strand breaks can be assessed for gamma-H2AX foci formation on metaphase chromosomes.Gamma-H2AX foci can be observed at the break point of chromosomes and can persist in newly repair chromosomes. Foci observation may be advantageous compared to classical cytogenetic analysis due to less time required for analysis. Metaphase DNA damage analysis can be also used for the estimation of DNA damage persistence in daughter cells and capacity of DNA repair. Not only DNA double strand breaks can be visualized, but also other types of DNA damage and modification such as oxidative damage, crosslinking, and methylation of DNA can be visualized with appropriate antibodies. This IRIF immunostaining technique can be combined with FISH analysis for the immunoFISH method.