The role of sediment cytology in ovarian neoplasm

Objective: It was our aim to study the role of sediment cytology in a diagnostic evaluation of ovarian neoplasm. Methods: The present study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh, India, over a span of 22 months. Cytological smears were prepared by centrifuging the sediment of fluid from the bottom of a container in which surgical specimens were received. Smears were fixed in 95% ethyl alcohol and then stained using hematoxylin-eosin and Papanicolaou stains. The cytological results were compared with histological diagnosis, taking the latter as gold standard. Results: Out of 54 lesions studied by sediment cytology, 22 lesions were labeled as benign, 26 lesions as malignant and 6 lesions were inconclusive. Final histological diagnoses labeled 24 lesions as benign and 30 lesions as malignant. Comparing the diagnosis of the cytology smear with the histological section, 44 out of 54 cases were concordant. A sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of 90.3, 92.3 and 90.3% was achieved, respectively. Conclusion: Biopsy sediment cytology is a good complementary method to histopathology in the study of ovarian biopsy material. In developing countries like ours, where the facility of frozen section is not available at many centers, this simple and cheap technique can be of much help in rapid diagnosis.