To study the cytopathology of repair renal tubular cells (RRTCs), the Papanicolaou-stained urine sediments of 371 patients with mild and moderate renal tubular injuries were reviewed. In 46 cases, the urine sediments showed, in addition to a mild or moderate increase in number of RTCs, a few isolated and clustered RRTCs that displayed well- or ill-defined, variably abundant, granular or vacuolated cytoplasm; slightly pleomorphic nuclei; and conspicuous or prominent nucleoli. A spectrum of nuclear changes ranging from mild to moderate atypias and/or severe atypia were present in many cases. These RRTCs stained strongly positively with vimentin antibody in 92.3% of the cases.

Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is rarely associated with a malignant pleural effusion in its clinical course. However, when it is, the suspended tumor cells are almost always seen in small clusters and in short rows with nuclear molding and display scant cytoplasm, round or oval nuclei with hyperchromatic salt-and-pepper chromatin pattern and inconspicuous nucleoli. These characteristic cellular features proved to be valid criteria for diagnosing SCLC invading the pleura in almost all cases. This brief communications reports three cases of SCLC with unusual pleural effusion cytology.The three cases were documented in the files of the cytology laboratory at the University of Alberta Hospitals, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Patients 1 and 2 were male and 67 and 71 years of age, respectively. They had a 50-year history of cigarette smoking and presented initially with pneumonia. Bronchoscopy with bronchial washes and brushes and mucosal biopsies of their right stem bronchi revealed an SCLC. The two patients developed right pleural effusions 3-6 months after the completion of their radiotherapy and chemotherapy. A thoracocentesis was performed and drained about 1 liter of a blood-tinted serous fluid. Patient 3 was a 61-year-old nonsmoking woman who was admitted to a hospital for investigation of an important left pleural effusion that yielded 1 liter of slightly turbid serous fluid. Subsequent bronchoscopy with bronchial washes and brushes and mucosal biopsy of her left stem bronchus revealed an SCLC.In each case, 50 -100 mL of a serous fluid were submitted to the hospital cytology laboratory. Four cytospin smears were prepared from each sample and stained by the Papanicolaou method. The cytologic findings in the three effusions were similar and characterized by the presence of several large tridimensional ball-like clusters of malignant small cells displaying nuclear molding, admixed with a variable number of reactive mesothelial cells and lymphocytes (Fig. 1). The tumor cells had scant ill-defined cytoplasm, oval hyperchromatic nuclei with finely granular

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