Comparative utility of diagnostic bone-marrow components: A 10-year study

Abstract

Ten years of cumulative experience represented by 4,902 consecutive diagnostic bonemarrow examinations at a tertiary care and referral center were reviewed to assess the value of specific components. While it has been shown previously that the information obtained from each component is generally complementary, the inclusion of some or all components may vary between institutions. The components studied included aspirate smears, clot sections, biopsy cores, and touch imprints of biopsy and clot sections. Three clinical presentations accounted for the majority of cases: staging for carcinoma or lymphoma, cytopenias, and acute leukemia. We conclude that bilateral aspirates with biopsies are required for diagnosis in staging of neoplasms and that a unilateral aspirate with biopsy is sufficient to assess patients with cytopenia or leukemia. Only rarely were touch imprints of biopsy cores necessary to establish a diagnosis; however, their early availability prior to examining sections of the clot and core did provide immediate information, when positive, in the staging of patients with carcinoma. In a small percentage of staging and leukemia cases the diagnosis rested with the clot section alone. The findings in this study address common assumptions associated with routine diagnostic hematology and oncology procedures, and are important to both clinicians and pathologists concerned with accuracy, quality assurance, turnaround time, and cost containment. Am.

Comparative Evaluation of Simultaneous Bone Marrow Aspiration and Bone Marrow Biopsy: An Institutional Experience

“…Many studies done previously showed that BMB was a better procedure for detecting metastatic tumour. [7][8][9], Only 50% cases showed a positive correlation in our study, which is in agreement with studies by Atac et al [10] where he studied 39 cases and each positive BMB was also positive by BMA. In our study the metastasis were mostly adenocarcinomas 3/6 (primary from gastric carcinoma), 1/6 small cell carcinoma where the primary was unidentified, 2/6 cases of poorly differentiated carcinoma.…”

A Relevance Study of Bone Marrow Aspiration and Bone Marrow Biopsy in Haematological and Non Haematological Disorders

“…An adequate bone marrow core biopsy adds this important information. Bone marrow biopsy is essential in case of 'dry tap' or 'blood tap' (9) Hence, we attempted to correlate both these parameters to arrive at a more conclusive final diagnosis. …”

A pathologist's perspective on bone marrow aspiration and biopsy: I. performing a bone marrow examination

“…During the bone marrow examination, bone marrow particles are aspirated and spread on slides, and a core of bone and marrow (trephine biopsy) is also obtained. The bone marrow aspirate preparations are valuable for differential cell counts and the evaluation of individual cell morphology, while the trephine biopsy is preferred for the evaluation of marrow cellularity, accurate determination of the number of megakaryocytes, and the detection of focal lesions such as lymphoma, granulomas, and metastatic carcinoma (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). Since the aspirate and biopsy provide complementary information, both specimens are routinely obtained.…”