Cytopathology

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Cytopathology is a branch of pathology that studies and diagnoses diseases on the cellular level.

A common application of cytopathology is the Pap smear, used as a screening tool, to detect precancerous cervical lesions and prevent cervical cancer. Cytopathology is also commonly used to investigate thyroid lesions, diseases involving sterile body cavities (peritoneal, pleural, and cerebrospinal), and a wide range of other body sites. It is usually used to aid in the diagnosis of cancer, but also helps in the diagnosis of certain infectious diseases and other inflammatory conditions. Cytopathology is generally used on samples of free cells or tissue fragments, in contrast to histopathology, which studies whole tissues.

Cytopathologic tests are sometimes called smear tests because the samples may be smeared across a glass microscope slide for subsequent staining and microscopic examination. However, cytology samples may be prepared in other ways, including cytocentrifugation. Different types of smear tests may also be used for cancer diagnosis. In this sense, it is termed a cytologic smear.[1]

Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow is considered by many to be one of the fathers of cellular pathology, remembered most for his collection of lectures on the topic, published as Cellular Pathology in 1858.[2][3]

Cell collection

Two common methods of collecting cells for cytopathologic analysis include:

Exfoliative Cytology – In this method, cells are collected after they have been either spontaneously shed by the body ("spontaneous exfoliation") or manually scraped/brushed off of a surface in the body ("mechanical exfoliation"). An example of spontaneous exfoliation is when cells of the pleural cavity or peritoneal cavity are shed into the pleural or peritoneal fluid. This fluid can be collected via various methods for examination. Examples of mechanical exfoliation include Pap smears, where cells are scraped from the cervix with a cervical spatula, or bronchial brushings, where a bronchoscope is inserted into the trachea and used to evaluate a visible lesion by brushing cells from its surface and subjecting them to cytopathologic analysis.

Intervention cytology - in interventional cytology the pathologist intervenes into the body for sample collection. Nowadays FNAC has become synonymous to interventional cytology.

Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology or Needle aspiration biopsy – A hypodermic needle attached to a syringe is used to collect cells from lesions or masses in various body organs by microcoring, often with the application of negative pressure (suction) to increase yield. FNAC can be performed under palpation guidance (i.e., the clinician can feel the lesion) on a mass in superficial regions like the neck, thyroid or breast; FNAC may also be assisted by ultrasound or CAT scan for sampling of deep-seated lesions within the body that cannot be localized via palpation. FNAC is widely used in many countries, but success rate is dependent on the skill of the practitioner. If performed by a pathologist alone, or as team with pathologist-cytotechnologist, the success rate of proper diagnosis is superior than when performed by a non-pathologist.[4] This may be due to the pathologist's ability to immediately evaluate specimens under a microscope and immediately repeat the procedure if sampling was inadequate.

Fine needles are 23 to 27 gauge. Because needles as small as 27 gauge can almost always yield diagnostic material, FNAC is often the least injurious way to obtain diagnostic tissue from a lesion. Sometime a syringe holder may be used to facilitate using one hand to perform the biopsy while the other hand is immobilizing the mass. Imaging equipment such as a CT scanner or ultrasound may be used to assist in locating the region to be biopsied.

Sediment cytology – Here, the sample is collected from the fixative that was used for processing the biopsy or autopsy specimen. The fixative is mixed properly and taken into a centrifuge tube and is centrifuged. The sediment is used for smearing. These sediments are the cells that are shed by the autopsy and biopsy specimen during processing.

Cytology

Cytopathology is frequently, less precisely, called cytology, which means "the study of cells."

References

  1. Chapter 13, section of squamous cell carcinomas, in Mitchell, Richard Sheppard; Kumar, Vinay; Abbas, Abul K.; Fausto, Nelson. Robbins Basic Pathology. Philadelphia: Saunders. ISBN 1-4160-2973-7.  8th edition.
  2. "Rudolf Virchow — father of cellular pathology". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 86 (12): 688–689. December 1993. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1294355/?page=1. Retrieved 17 April 2014. 
  3. Virchow, Rudolf Ludwig Karl (1860). Cellular Pathology as Based Upon Physiological and Pathological Histology. John Churchill. http://books.google.com/books?id=nmEGHJy9uswC&printsec=frontcover. Retrieved 17 April 2014. 
  4. Orell, S., et al. 2005. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology. 4th Edition