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Background: Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is a widely accepted investigative tool for the diagnosis of pulmonary lesions. This study was done to find out the usefulness of BAL in diagnosis of pulmonary lesions from central Indian patient population., Methods: A cross-sectional prospective study was performed over a period of three years. All the BAL specimens of patients presenting to Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis during a period of January 2017 to December 2019 were included in the study. Cyto-histopathologic correlation was done, wherever available., Results: Of total 277 cases, there were 178 (64.5%) males and 99 (35.5%) females. The age of patients ranged from 4 years to 82 years. In 92 (33%) cases, specific infective etiology could be identified on BAL cytology, the most common being tuberculosis (26%) followed by fungal infections (2%). Rarely, infections like nocardia, actinomycosis, and hydatidosis were also identified. Eight cases (3%) of malignancy were identified which included two cases of adenocarcinoma, one case of small cell carcinoma, three cases of poorly differentiated carcinoma, and two cases suspicious for malignancy. Some rare diagnoses like diffuse alveolar damage, pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis, and pulmonary alveolar proteinosis could be identified on BAL., Conclusion: BAL is useful in primary diagnosis of infections and malignancies of lower respiratory tract. BAL may aid in diagnostic workup of diffuse lung diseases. A combination of clinical information, high-resolution computed tomography, and BAL analysis may furnish an assured diagnosis to the clinician and obviate need for invasive procedures., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2023 Journal of Cytology.)

Background and Aim: The natural history of cervical cancer is unique that it is preceded by a precancerous condition for a long time. Morphometry as a tool can be used in early and accurate diagnosis of these precancerous and cancerous lesions. The present study aims at assessing the utility of cellular and nuclear morphometry in differentiating squamous cell abnormality from benign conditions and also differentiating the categories of squamous cell abnormalities., Materials and Methods: Forty-eight diagnosed cases of squamous epithelial cell abnormality, that is, 10 cases each of atypical squamous cell of undetermined significance (ASC-US), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), high-grade SIL (HSIL), and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and eight cases of ASC-H (ASC cannot exclude HSIL), were made the sample population and compared with a control population of 10 cases of negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM). Parameters like nuclear area (NA), nuclear perimeter (NP), nuclear diameter (ND), nuclear compactness (NC), cellular area (CA), cellular diameter (CD), cellular perimeter (CP), and nucleocytoplasmic (N/C) ratio were used., Results: There was a significant difference in the six groups of squamous cell abnormality based on NA, NP, ND, CA, CP, and CD ( P < 0.05) using one-way analysis of variance. Nuclear morphometry parameters like NA, NP, and ND were found to be the maximum for HSIL, followed by LSIL, ASC-H, ASC-US, SCC, and NILM groups in decreasing order. The mean CA, CP, and CD were found to be the maximum for NILM, followed by LSIL, ASC-US, HSIL, ASC-H, and SCC in decreasing order. On post hoc analysis, the lesions can be divided into three groups: NILM/normal; ASC-US and LSIL; and ASC-H, HSIL, and SCC, based on N/C ratio., Conclusion: In cervical lesions, holistic parameter of cytonucleomorphometry should be taken rather than taking nuclear morphometry only. N/C ratio is a highly statistically significant parameter that can differentiate between low-grade lesions and high-grade lesions., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2022 Journal of Cytology.)

Background: The unanimous method of screening cervical cancer is a cervical smear stained with Papanicolaou stain. However, in spite of the various modifications, the staining procedure takes 20 min and uses substantial amount of alcohol which is highly priced. The aim of the study was to assess and analyze the quality of staining of cervical smears stained with Rapid Economical Acetic acid Papanicolaou (REAP) as compared to conventional pap stain in order to establish REAP as an alternative to conventional pap stain., Methods and Material: In this prospective study, a total of two smears each were collected from 50 females who visited the gynecology outpatient department. One of the smears was stained with conventional pap and the other with REAP. The conventional pap and REAP smears were evaluated and compared for the quality of staining., Results: The cervical smears stained with REAP showed optimal cytoplasmic and nuclear staining in 86% and 90% cases, respectively. The cytological findings and diagnosis of REAP stained smears correlated with their corresponding smears stained with conventional pap in 96% of cases. The turnaround time and cost per smear was much low for REAP as compared to conventional pap stain., Conclusion: The present study was able to establish REAP as an appropriate alternative to conventional pap stain. The staining by REAP was comparable to conventional pap stain., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2020 Journal of Cytology.)

Objectives: Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has emerged as an indispensable tool to discriminate thyroid lesions into benign or malignant for appropriate management. The need for simplicity of communication and standardization of terminology for thyroid FNAC reporting led to introduction of "The Bethesda system for reporting Thyroid Cytopathology" (TBSRTC) in a conference held at the National Cancer Institute in 2007. This study aims at establishing the reproducibility of TBSRTC for diagnosing thyroid lesions., Materials and Methods: The present study comprised thyroid FNAC from 107 patients retrospectively over a period of 1.5 year (June 2013 to December 2014), which were reviewed by two trained cytopathologists and re-categorized according to TBSRTC. The interobserver variation and reproducibility of the reporting system was statistically assessed using Cohen's kappa., Results: The cytopathologists were in agreement in 98 out of 107 cases (91.5%). Maximum concordance was noted in benign category (91 of 96 cases; 92.85%), followed by 2 cases each in nondiagnostic/unsatisfactory (ND/US) and follicular neoplasm/suspicious for follicular neoplasm (FN/SFN) category (2.04% each) and 1 case each in atypia of undetermined significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance (AUS/FLUS), suspicious for malignancy (SUS), and malignant category (1.02% each). The highest diagnostic disagreement was noted among ND/US and benign and benign and FN/SFN categories., Conclusion: The utilization of TBSRTC for reporting thyroid cytology should be promoted in our country because it provides a homogeneous, standardized, and unanimous terminology for cytological diagnosis of thyroid lesions. The present study could substantiate the diagnostic reproducibility of this system., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

Aims: Tzanck smear is an old but useful test for diagnosis of cutaneous dermatoses. The aim of this study was to highlight the potential usefulness and diagnostic pitfalls of Tzanck smear for diagnosis of cutaneous dermatoses and infections., Materials and Methods: This hospital based cross-sectional study was carried out on all Tzanck smears received for a period of twenty months (January 2014-August 2015). The smears were assessed to establish the utility of Tzanck smears in corroborating or excluding a diagnosis of immunobullous lesion or herpetic infection. Cases with discrepant diagnosis on histopathology were reviewed to identify additional cytomorphological features., Results: A total of 57 Tzanck smears were performed during the study period. Out of the 18 clinically suspected cases of immunobullous disorders, Tzanck smear findings corroborated the clinical diagnosis in 7/18 cases, one case was diagnosed as cutaneous candidiasis, and diagnosis of immunobullous lesions could be excluded in 5/18 cases. Out of the 19 suspected cases of herpetic infections, viral cytopathic effect was observed in 8/19 cases. Besides immunobullous lesions and herpetic infections, acantholytic cells were also observed in spongiotic dermatitis and genodermatosis. Dyskeratotic keratinocytes seen in vacuolar interface dermatitis were not easily distinguishable from acantholytic cells on Tzanck smear., Conclusions: Tzanck smear test is an inexpensive and useful diagnostic tool for certain skin diseases. It can aid in establishing a rapid clinical diagnosis and can serve as a useful adjunct to routine histological examination. We recommend the use of Tzanck smear as a first-line investigation for vesiculobullous, erosive, and pustular lesions., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.