The advantages of upper gastrointestinal tract brush cytology.

A two-year study of endoscopic brush cytology and biopsy histology was carried out in 63 patients suspected of having malignant lesions in the stomach and the eosophagus. The study was designed to evaluate the accuracy and usefulness of combined cytological examination with biopsy histological examination in the diagnosis of malignancy of the upper gastrointestinal tract. The rate of diagnostic accuracy of the combined technique was found to be high and comparable with those of other published studies. Correlations between the cytological and histological findings were observed in 52 cases (82.53%). The combined method detected malignancy in 27 cases, whereas, the brush cytology alone detected malignancy in 19 cases. The findings of our study indicate that combined brush cytology and biopsy histology under direct vision using fibrescope are of value for the diagnosis of gastroeosophageal malignancy.