Pollen grains in human cytology

This paper reports on pollen analyses carried out in the course of a ten-year investigation, on many thousands of cytological smears coming from various organs and systems of the human body, and prepared for diagnostic purposes. The frequency and the significance of the pollen records vary according to the specific cytological field taken into account. In the urinary sediment smears, nipple secretions, and needle aspirations the polliniferous smears are very few, and the pollen number per smear is low (max 14 pollen grains, belonging always or mostly to anemophilous species). In these cases, the pollen records evidence the airborne contamination during medical procedures, the same happens with most of cervico-vaginal smears. In some cervico-vaginal smears, the high frequency of pollen grains belonging to pharmaceutical taxa suggests that lavages with vegetable components were used by the patients before undergoing the test. In nasal, bronchial and conjunctival cytology greater amounts of pollinif...