The role of intraoperative cytology in the diagnostic evaluation of ovarian neoplasms.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the role of intraoperative cytology (IOC) in the diagnostic evaluation of ovarian neoplasms.


METHODS
The present study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh, India, over a time span of 18 months. Depending on the consistency of the lesion, touch, scrape or crush techniques were used to prepare cytological smears. Smears were fixed in 95% ethyl alcohol and then stained with hematoxylin and eosin or Papanicolaou stains. Cytological results were compared with the histological diagnosis taking the latter as the gold standard.


RESULTS
Of 50 lesions studied by IOC, 25 lesions were labeled as benign, 24 lesions as malignant and 1 lesion was inconclusive. Final histological diagnoses labeled 25 lesions as benign and 25 lesions as malignant. Comparing the diagnosis of cytology smears with histology sections, 47 of 50 cases were concordant. Sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy were 95.8, 96.0 and 95.8%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
IOC is a good complement to histopathology in the study of ovarian neoplasms, particularly in developing countries like ours, where the facility of frozen sections is often not available, since a rapid preliminary diagnosis may help in surgical management planning.
Department of Pathology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. shahidaftab@gmail.com
Mohammad
M
Shahid
Sufian
S
Zaheer
Aysha
A
Mubeen
Khaliqur
K
Rahman
Rana K
RK
Sherwani
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003581:Cytodiagnosis / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006652:Histological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D010053:Ovary / Q000473:pathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult