The diagnostic significance of parabasal cells. I. Correlation with the clinical diagnosis in 209 patients.

The diagnostic significance of parabasal cells was investigated by studying the correlation of their presence in the smears with the clinical diagnosis of the patients. Out of a total of 2,193 patients examined for various endocrine disorders during a period of seven years, parabasal cells were found in 209 patients of the reproductive years. In all these patients the presence of parabasal cells in the smears was related with two endocrine states: a) either the complete absence of estrogens (173 patients or 82.7 percent), or b) the presence of excess amounts of androgens (36 patients or 17.3 percent). In both instances the cytologic findings indicated accurately the severeness of the underlying endocrine disturbance which had necessitated a battery of laboratory tests and assays to be established.