title: Identification of biological samples in a case of contamination of a cytological slide preparation.
abstract: Here we report a case where a discrete section of the cytological slide preparation of a female individual was obviously contaminated with pleura liquid of a female tumor patient. Analysis of the cancerous pleura liquid and the healthy cells of the slide preparation showed different DNA profiles, indicating that the material originated from two different female individuals. The DNA profile of the cell mixture revealed a heterogenous pattern whereby the alleles could be assigned to the healthy and the tumor patient. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) was observed in four of eight short tandem repeat systems for the pleura liquid and the cell mixture. Despite the low amount of DNA on the slide preparation and the occurrence of LOH, it was possible to clarify the case and to support the assumption that a drop of cancerous pleura liquid contaminated the cytological slide.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn, Stiftsplatz 12, 53111 Bonn, Germany. a.junge@uni-bonn.de
authors.forename: Anke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Junge
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dettmeyer
authors.forename: Burkhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Madea
mesh_terms: D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019656:Loss of Heterozygosity; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D010994:Pleura / Q000166:cytology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences