No abstract

In Japan, there are some problems with fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology of the breast, such as insufficient smeared cells, air-drying artefact and excessive erythrocytes. Liquid-based cytology has been found to solve these problems. Equipment for such preparations has been developed, but can be expensive to purchase and operate. We developed Auto Cyto Fix 1000 (ACF), which is inexpensive and automatically smears and fixes cells. The purpose of this study was to compare the various cytological features of conventional and ACF specimens. We evaluated whether the ACF method would be able to replace the conventional method. Forty-eight FNA specimens of breast were studied. All specimens were prepared by the direct smeared (DS) and ACF methods and evaluated for unsatisfactory cell collection, air-drying artefacts, background findings and epithelial cell findings. Although ACF specimens were prepared using the cells remaining in the needle and syringe after preparing DS specimens, the cellularity of two of the ACF specimens was better than that of the corresponding DS specimens. ACF specimens never showed air-drying artefact. Unlike DS specimens, which have many erythrocytes in the background, erythrocytes were filtered out and the background of ACF specimens was clean. We believe that many problems attributable to conventional FNA specimen preparation have been solved in this study. Preparation using the ACF apparatus can reduce running costs and can be used to prepare FNA specimens of the breast for cytological examination as an alternative to the conventional method.

Object: In the present study, we compared the positive cytodiagnostic test rates with discrepancies using self-collection devices for cervical cancer screening. We made this survey to examine whether or not our selfsmear preparation method using the Kato self-collection device contributed to an improved rate of detecting atypical cells compared with existing recommended preparation methods. Methods: Specimens were collected at 14 facilities handling self-collection methods, and samples were collected by a physician in 2 facilities. The chisquared test was performed using the SPSS ver. 20 statistical software to determine the relationships between the positive cytodiagnostic rate, specimen preparation methods, and self-collection devices. Results: Collecting cells using the Kato self-collection device and preparing liquid-based specimens, we obtained a significantly higher rate of positive cytodiagnosis and our results were equal to those obtained with the direct method. Conclusions: Taking into consideration increased needs for screening using the self-collection method in future, with even more improved test accuracy, a screening test that is acceptable to society needs to be established.

No abstract

We conducted a comparative study of angiogenesis observed in endometrial aspirates according to histological type. Cytological specimens from 14 cases of proliferative phase endometrium, 21 cases of endometrial hyperplasia and 18 cases of well-differentiated endometrial adenocarcinoma were used in the investigation. Immunohistochemical staining was performed according to standard methods using CD34 monoclonal antibody, and new vessels were examined. New vessels were identified in all of the histological types, but no morphological differences were seen. New vessels were observed in more cases of adenocarcinoma than in cases of normal tissue or hyperplasia, and the differences were significant. The difference between the maximum and minimum rates of occurrence of cell clusters possessing new vessels tended to be greater in adenocarcinoma than in the other tissue types (P < 0.05). Based on the above findings, examination of new vessels appearing in aspirated endometrial specimens appeared to be of help in differential diagnosis, but it also seemed necessary to take changes due to the menstrual cycle etc. into consideration.