1Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Taegu, Korea. 2Department of Anatomical Pathology, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Taegu, Korea. 3Respiratory Center of Kyungpook National University Hospital, Taegu, Korea.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Brush cytology is one of useful methods for establishing a diagnosis of lung cancer. There are two methods of retrieving the specimen of brush cytology. One is to withdraw the brush through the working channel of the bronchoscope (withdrawn brush) and the other is to withdraw the brush and bronchoscope as a unit, with brush remaining protruded through the distal tip of the bronchoscope (nonwithdrawn brush). We tried to compare two methods in the cellularity of the specimen and the diagnosis of lung cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-one patients with suspected lung cancer were studied prospectively. The sequence of sampling (withdrawn or nonwithdrawn brush) was assigned randomly. The specimens were interpreted by two cytopathologists about cellularity (1-4) and presence of recognizable malignant cells.
RESULTS: Cellularity was significantly greater for nonwithdrawn brush (p<0.05). There was no significant difference of diagnostic rate between both methods in the diagnosis of lung cancer.
CONCLUSION: Withdrawing the brush through the bronchoscope decreases the cellularity, but it does not affect the diagnostic rate for lung cancer.
PDF Links
Full text via DOI 
Download Citation 
