Wolfson W L, Rosenthal D L
Acta Cytol. 1978 May-Jun;22(3):138-41.
Clusters of cells in cytologic preparations from the urinary tract have been commented on repeatedly. To determine their significance we studied 88 patients with documented papillary carcinomas, Grades I-IV, who had cytologic examination of their urine. We defined two distinct cluster types, "rounded", and "papillary", which were easily distinguishable from artifactual excoriated cell aggregates. By cytologic techniques 64 per cent of the specimens were positive and 18 per cent suspicious for malignancy, with the lowest sensitivity for Grade I tumors, and the highest for Grade IV tumors. Clusters were observed in 39 per cent of the cases, and also were more common in the most undifferentiated tumors. However, many cases which were cytologically positive had no clusters, and in only one case were clusters present without other cytologic features of malignancy. It appears that the presence of cell clusters is not a more sensitive indicator of papillary lesions than usual cytologic criteria applied to single cells. Clusters may indicate a higher grade tumor.
尿路细胞学涂片上的细胞团已被多次提及。为了确定其意义，我们研究了88例经证实为I - IV级乳头状癌的患者，这些患者均接受了尿液细胞学检查。我们定义了两种不同的细胞团类型，“圆形”和“乳头状”，它们很容易与人为剥脱的细胞聚集体区分开来。通过细胞学技术，64%的标本呈阳性，18%疑似恶性，其中I级肿瘤的敏感性最低，IV级肿瘤的敏感性最高。39%的病例中观察到细胞团，并且在分化程度最低的肿瘤中更常见。然而，许多细胞学检查呈阳性的病例并没有细胞团，而且只有1例病例存在细胞团但没有其他恶性细胞学特征。看来，细胞团的存在并不是比应用于单个细胞的常规细胞学标准更敏感的乳头状病变指标。细胞团可能提示肿瘤分级较高。
