A case series of comparative study of two cell block methods

Abstract

Cell block method for assessment of body fluids, effusions, material obtained from FNA’s is simple, inexpensive and overcomes the pitfalls of conventional cytology such as atypical metaplasia, crowding of cells, reparative changes and staining artifactThis retrospective study was done from October 2020 to February 2021 at tertiary care hospital. Various samples of body fluids (peritoneal, pleural, cererbrospinal fluid, bronchial wash, synovial fluids, pus, endometrial aspirate, sputum, urine received in cytology section studied. The cell blocks by formalin and plasma-thrombin methods are prepared and compared with each other and comparison of their diagnostic accuracy with diagnostic accuracy of conventional smear method On comparison of formalin and plasma-thrombin methods, the median score of plasma-thrombin method is 5 while that of formalin based method is 4. The diagnostic accuracy of plasma-thrombin method is 69.23% and that of formalin based method is 68.19%The cell block helps in providing additional cellular details and nuclear features when studied in conjunction with conventional smear. The plasma thrombin method provides better cellular details but in low cost setting it is not cost effective. Formalin method is both cost effective and handy.