Abstract
Background: Cytological Smear (CS) is extremely useful in patients with pleural effusions especially when malignancy is suspected. Cellblock (CB) technique is another method for examination of pleural fluid. In this study we aimed to compare the diagnostic yields of CS and CB technique and the combi-nation of both, regardless of the etiology of Pleural Effusion (PE), and to compare their results with clinicopathological and radiological results.
Aim of Study: This study aims to compare the diagnostic yields of CS and CB techniques and their combination in diagnosis of PF regardless of its etiology.
Material and Methods: 140 cases of PE samples were obtained, CS and CB were done, results were compared with each other and correlated with the clinicopathological and radiology results when available.
Results: Agreement between results of CS and CB was 87.86% (p=0.0001). There was an agreement between CS at one side and either radiological findings or biopsy at the other side; 88.89% and 88.1% respectively (p=0.0001 for each). There was an agreement also between CB results and either radiological findings or biopsy; 94.87% and 95.24% respec-tively (p=0.0001 for each).
Conclusions: Our study showed that the CB method yielded better results in diagnosis of malignancy in PE. Therefore, this technique could be considered as a useful adjuvant in evaluating PE fluid cytology and final cytodiag-nosis, along with the routine CS method.