Cytology of Body Fluids from Different Sites: An approach for early diagnosis of malignancy

Abstract

Malignant effusions are a common presenting sign of malignancy and reflect dissemination. A
retrospective study of all fluid samples accessioned at the Department of Pathology, TUTH from
April 2000 to October 2002 were done. Over the study period, a total of 584 specimens were
examined- 324 peritoneal fluid, 224 pleural fluid, 19 pericardial fluid, 9 knee joint effusion and 8
Cerebro-Spinal Fluid (CSF). One hundred and nine (18.66%) out of 584 cases were found to have
malignancy, 57 were male and 52 were female. The age group of the adult male ranged from 42-78
years and female ranged from 43-62 years. Three patients were children with age ranging from
8-11 years. Adenocarcinoma was the commonest that comprised 89%, followed by Non Hodgkin’s
lymphoma 6.5% squamous cell carcinoma 2.7% and small cell carcinoma comprised 1.8 %.
Exfoliative cytology is cheap, rapid and highly effective tool for the evaluation of body fluid and
should be advised in all effusion cases.

Key Words: Cytology, malignant effusion, cytocentrifuge.