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Fine needle aspiration (FNA) of testicular germ cell tumours; a 10‐year experience in a community hospital
Author(s) -
GarcÍaSolano,
SánchezSánchez,
MontalbánRomero,
SolaPérez,
PérezGuillermo
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
cytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1365-2303
pISSN - 0956-5507
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2303.1998.00088.x
Subject(s) - medicine , malignancy , cytopathology , fine needle aspiration , cytology , medical diagnosis , radiology , work up , pathology , biopsy
garcía‐solano j., sánchez‐sánchez c., montalbán‐romero s., sola‐pérez j. and pérez‐guillermo m. (1998) Cytopathology 9, 248–262 Fine needle aspiration (FNA) of testicular germ cell tumours; a 10‐year experience in a community hospital A retrospective reappraisal is made of the smears of 29 testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT) studied by FNA in which both orchiectomy specimens and histologic diagnoses were available. In 22 cases (75.86%) the yield was sufficient and contained cells suitable for cytologic diagnosis; in these 22 cases a diagnosis of malignancy was reached. In four cases (13.79%) the yield was sparse and diagnostic cells were partially obscured by haemorrhage and necrosis; these cases were categorized as suspicious of malignancy. In three cases (10.34%) the yield was not suitable for cytologic evaluation because haemorrhage and necrosis hampered evaluation of diagnostic cells. The cytologic findings that enable a reliable diagnosis of TGCT are described and those cytologic features that may lead the less experienced cytopathologist into an erroneous diagnosis are discussed. Pure TGCT can be confidently diagnosed with FNA and mixed TGCT can be successfully diagnosed, although it is difficult to recognize every cytologic subtype observed in the histologic sections. Despite the advantages of FNA for the prompt diagnosis of TGCT, FNA can not fully replace the histologic diagnosis and should rather be considered as a helpful tool in the work‐up of testicular tumours.