title: Significance of foamy histiocytes in cervical smears from postmenopausal women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the significance of the presence of foamy histiocytes (FH) in postmenopausal cervicovaginal smears for the detection of endometrial carcinomas (EC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Endometrial sampling was performed over 6 months in 53 of 102 cases that presented with postmenopausal FH, benign endometrial cells (BEC), FH with BEC (FH + BEC), and atypical endometrial cells (AEC), resulting in a total of 41,150 cervicovaginal smears. The control group consisted of 58 cases with a cytologic diagnosis of a normal smear (NS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 0 (0%), 1 (4.54%), 2 (13.33%), 2 (33.33%), and 5 (50.00%) cases of EC diagnosed on histopathologic evaluation in patients with NS (n = 58), BEC (n = 22), FH (n = 15), FH + BEC (n = 6), and AEC (n = 10), respectively. The sensitivities and specificities of the cytologic diagnoses of FH, FH + BEC, and AEC for the detection of EC were 81.7 and 100%, 93.6 and 100%, and 92.1 and 100%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The cytologic diagnoses of FH and FH + BEC had reasonably high sensitivities and specificities for the diagnosis of EC by cervicovaginal smear. Additional studies are needed.
authors.affiliation: Pathology Department, Umraniye Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gozde
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kir
authors.forename: Muberra Segmen
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.forename: Handan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Çetiner
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gocmen
authors.forename: Filiz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Alptekin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000473:pathology; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004717:Endometrium / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006644:Histiocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D017698:Postmenopause; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014626:Vaginal Smears