Gastrointestinal tract Flashcards
White mucosal lesions appearing on the
lips, palate, tongue and lining of the cheeks.
Hyperkeratosis without atypia.
Leukoplakia
Painful fever blisters on the lips or in the vicinity of the nostrils.
These blisters exude a clear fluid or are covered by a scab.
Herpetic stomatitis
Small, painful, shallow ulcers surrounded by red borders
Aphthous ulcers (canker sores)
This does not occur in the oral cavity, but on the lip.
only found on the skin and is caused by sun exposure.
The cells are hyperchromatic, crowded and oval in shape.
The nuclei are oval with evenly distributed chromatin.
No nucleoli are visible.
Basal cell carcinoma
Salivary gland cells that appear as single layer of cuboidal or columnar.
Either:
- few oval or elongated nuclei arranged in a parallel or rosette formation at the centre of the acinar clusters.
- frequently arranged in sheets or in a honeycomb
pattern, and have uniform, round or oval nuclei and scant cyanophilic cytoplasm.
Ductal cells
These cells form one layer of flat cells around the ducts and acini.
These cells have oval or spindle nuclei with vesicular chromatin.
They frequently appear as round to oval naked nuclei, lymphocyte-size, on a
different plane of focus from the remaining cells in a sheet.
Myoepithelial
These cells can be serous, mucinous or oncocytic
Acinar cells
These cells form groups/clusters of cuboidal cells with round, eccentric or basal nuclei that are slightly larger than red blood cells.
The small nuclei is uniform, containing finely or coarsely granular chromatin and
one/two prominent round nucleoli.
The abundant ill-defined cytoplasm stains blue or green with the Pap or Diff-Quik methods, and may show refractile purple-blue cytoplasmic granules.
Serous Cells
These cells are oval or round, with eccentrically located nuclei that have
uniform finely granular chromatin and single nucleoli.
Their cytoplasm has a lacy appearance due to the presence of multiple fine
vacuoles, although large single vacuoles may also be present
Mucinous cells
Cells are large with well-defined cell borders, large round nuclei (may also be
pyknotic) with occasional prominent nucleoli, and an abundant finely granular
eosinophilic cytoplasm.
Oncocytes
FNA produces a clear liquid that may form froth on shaking, or it can be mucoid if derived from a mucocele.
The specimen is almost acellular, apart from inflammatory cells, few cuboidal or
flattened epithelial cells.
Occasionally the fluid may be turbid and contain histiocytes with granular or
refractile material in their cytoplasm.
Sialocysts
The cyst wall contains lymphoid and epithelial cells.
On aspiration, the cysts produce abundant mature and transformed lymphoid
cells, clusters of small cyanophilic epithelial cells, and some squamous cells.
These cysts contain only a few mucinous cells, if any.
Benign lymphoepithelial cysts
This is characterized by the presence of acute inflammatory cells, frequently associated with debris, strands of fibrin and few plasma cells, lymphocytes and
histiocytes
Acute sialadenitis
The aspirate is scant, and consists of lymphocytes, plasma cells, acellular
proteinaceous debris, mucus and usually a few acute inflammatory cells.
Atrophy results in condensation of the acini and ducts, with the development of
complex 3D structures.
Eventually, fibrous tissue predominates and only a few ducts with cuboidal
epithelium remain.
Reparative changes are frequently evident
The epithelial cells, endothelial cells and fibroblasts may show reactive changes
associated with healing, and the nuclear enlargement may be worrisome.
However, these cells have fine delicate uniform chromatin, thin nuclear
membranes, prominent nucleoli and often multiple cytoplasmic processes.
Chronic sialadenitis
The acinar cells show severe degenerative changes in the form of degranulation,
ballooning of the cytoplasm, and nuclear hyperchromasia.
In the chronic phase, the acini are atrophic and aspiration yields scant material.
Few fragments of stroma and ductal epithelium, some with atypical nuclei, are
seen together with a few lymphocytes.
Post-radiation sialadenitis
It forms non-caseating granulomas.
Smears shows small rounded masses of plump epithelioid cells with vesicular nuclei containing small single/multiple nucleoli and abundant light eosinophilic illdefined cytoplasm.
In addition smears also show lymphocytes, histiocytes and multiinucleated giant stromal cells.
The stromal and endothelial cells are frequently arranged in fascicles
Sarcoidosis
Caseous necrosis/epitheloid granulomas are found.
Smears show aggregates of epithelioid histiocytes with ill-defined borders admixed with necrotic debris, lymphocytes and Langhans’ giant cells.
Tuberculosis
