title: Evaluation of accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology for diagnosis of canine mammary tumours: comparative features with human tumours.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The authors evaluated the accuracy of the fine needle aspiration cytology technique in the diagnosis of 77 canine mammary gland tumours using the same cytological and histological criteria currently applied to the diagnosis of human breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was performed in 73 pure or mixed-breed female dogs submitted to surgical resections of 'mammary tumours'. All cytological smears were stained by routine May-Grunwald-Giemsa and Papanicolaou stains.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We obtained a correct cyto-histological correlation in 52/77 cases (67.5%) when all cytopathological examinations were considered, and in 52/56 cases (92.9%) when the inconclusive cases were excluded from the analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results demonstrate that, because of the similarity of the cytological findings in the human and canine mammary gland tumours, it is possible to use the same cytological criteria applied in human pathology for the diagnosis of canine mammary gland tumours.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Patologia Comparada, Depto. Patologia Geral - ICB/UFMG, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Cassali
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gobbi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Malm
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Schmitt
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008321:Mammary Glands, Animal / Q000473:pathology*; D015674:Mammary Neoplasms, Animal / Q000473:pathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013045:Species Specificity