Abstract
BACKGROUND: Morphological examination of materials obtained during endometrial aspiration biopsy or diagnostic curettage is an integral part in the diagnosis of endometrial pathologies; however, these manipulations are invasive and have additional surgical and anesthetic risks. Therefore, the improvement of endometrial cytological examination is of great interest to minimize associated risks with high diagnostic potential. Currently, traditional cytology (TC) and liquid-based cytology (LBC) are employed for the morphological diagnosis of diseases of various localizations, but the possibilities of their combined use are insufficiently explored.
AIMS: To improve the cytological diagnosis of endometrial tumors and non-tumor lesions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study enrolled 101 patients aged 2279 years with endometrial pathologies and indications for surgical treatment and routine histological examination of operative specimen. Endometrial surface scrapings obtained during hysteroscopy (n=73) and postoperative specimen (n=28) were used for cytological examination. A portion of the obtained specimen was immediately applied to a TC slide, and the rest was placed in a vial with preserving medium for LBC. Statistical processing of the results was performed according to conventional methods using StatTech v. 2.8.8 (Stattech LLC, Russia).
RESULTS: Uninformative data were obtained in 9.9% of the cases in the TC and in 14.9% of cases in LC of uterine cavity specimens. The combined use of TC and LC reduced the number of observations with inadequate specimen to 6.9%. The presence of atypia in the cytological specimen (threshold value of atypical hyperplasia) correlated with the results of the histological examination (p0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: The combined use of TC and LC allows increasing the number of observations with adequate specimens, improving the accessible and minimally invasive diagnosis of proliferative conditions and tumors.