Sputum cytology using saccomanno's method

In this paper is presented the method of sputum cytology which was developed by Saccomanno.This method has been used in the Mayo Lung Project in U.S.A.Comparison between the cellular features of direct smears obtained by the transbronchial brushing or the needle aspiration technique, and of smears that had remained in Saccomanno's solution for 1, 2 and 4weeks showed that epidermoid carcinoma cells did not exhibit much evidence of degeneration, but that adenocarcinoma cells and small cell anaplastic cell carcinoma cells did exhibit some appreciable degree of cellular damage. Cytologic examination, however, was capable of identifying whether they were cancer cells or not.In the authors'laboratory, sputum cytology was performed in 39 cases of lung cancer by Saccomanno's concentration method, and comparison between this method and direct smear was studied.The cytolo gically positive rate was elevated by 18.0%, compared with the direct smear in the same specimens.Morphologic characteristics of cancer cells by Saccomanno's concentration method were observed.Epidermoid carcinoma cells were similar to those found by the direct smear.Adenocarcinoma cells were somewhat different from direct smear cells, that is, irregular overlapping of cells was hardly visible, and scattering of cells was increased;thick cytoplasm was common; chromatin was rather coarsely distributed.In small cell anaplastic carcinoma cells, also chromatin distribution was coarse, and cell clumping was more striking.Since this is a rapid, simple method that permits atypical cells to be readily found, 295 people were screened by chest X-ray and sputum cytology using this method.The sputum cytologic tests utilized 3-day pooled collections of spontaneous sputum.At this point, cancer cells have not yet found, though it may be said that the frequency of discovery of histiocytes in these specimens was higher by 18.5% than in the cases where direct smears were employed.