Cytology Flashcards
When Evaluating Cytology Slides principally the Nucleus indicates what? And the Cytoplasm indicates what?
- Nuecleus - Indicates state of growth activity of a cell (euplasia, Proplasia, retroplasia, neoplasia)
- Cytoplasm - Indicates functional differentiation (lineage of cell)
What type of tumor is this?
Round Cell Tumour
Lymphoma
Note the Blue arrow pointing at a normal Lymphocyte
What should you look for within a cytology smear?
- Cell Populations
- List and define proportions of cell types (%diff. count) [Inflammatory of Monomorphic?]
- Sub-Cellular Morphology
- Nucleus and cytoplasm
- Background
- Protein, RBC’s, Foreign Organisms, Crystals, etc
What Features or Malignancy do you see here?
- High Nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio
- Anisokaryosis
- Nuclear molding (deformation by other nuclei)
When diagnosing Neoplasia from a cytology slide, what is used to :-
- Differente the type of tumour
- Diagnose the malignancy?
- Cytoplasmic appearance of cells is used to evaluate the degree of differentiation and the type of tumor
- Diagnosis of malignancy is based primarily on the nuclear criteria
What is Cytology?
The analysis of fresh cells collected from lumps, swellings, fluid and Urine.
When looking at cytology what do you look for to determine if it is inflammatory or not.
Presence of Neutrophils
By looking at these cytology pictures what can you tell me about them?
- They are both inflammatory reactions
- The second is acute inflammation as it consists of mainly neutrophils with maybe a monocyte and possibly an occasional lymphocyte but rarely a plasma cell
When looking at the background of a cytology slide what are we looking for?
- Cholesterol Crystals
- RBC’s
- Protein
WHat features or Malignancy do you see here?
- Marked variation in size, shape and number
- Irregular shapes with sharp angularity
- Enlarged Nucleoli
Describe how you would prepare a FNA slide?
Using the Squash Preparation technique
What 2 factors do we take into consideration when looking at cytology and trying to make a diagnosis?
- Tissue Type
- Type of Lesion Present
What are the Nuclear criteria of malignancy?
Must have at least four of these to be classed malignant
- Increased Nuclear-Cytoplasmic ratio
- Variation in nuclear size - anisokaryosis
- Increased mitotic figures
- Chromatin pattern - Clumping
- Multi-Nucleation
- Abnormal mitosis
- Nuclear Molding
What do the cells in the lymphnodes look like?
- Normal lymph nodes contain 75-90% small well differeentiated lymphocytes.
- THey contain a thin rim of cytoplasm and the nucleus is roundish to oval sometimes indented. It has dense clumps of dark chromatin and has no visible nucleoulus
Tissue/organ-specific cell types can be grouped into three basic forms based on their cytological characteristics. What are these 3 groups?