Adenomyoepithelioma of the breast: a potential diagnostic pitfall on fine needle aspiration cytology.

Adenomyoepithelioma is a rare myoepithelial cell-rich tumour of the breast. We report a case of adenomyoepithelioma in a 60-year-old female, where it evoked the suspicion of a carcinoma on fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) smears and also review the literature on FNAC diagnosis of this rare tumour.

Diagnostic evaluation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis by fine needle aspiraton (FNA) supplemented with AFB smear and culture.

One hundred forty-three patients, 72 males and 71 females, with extrapulmonary tuberculosis were aspirated and subjected to cytological (Ziehl-Neelsen stain) examination and culture in Lowenstein-Jensen media. Routine haematological examination and Mantoux test were done in all the cases, x-ray chest in 112, skeletal x-ray in 3 relevant cases and sputum was examined for AFB in 16 cases where pulmonary tuberculosis was associated/suspected with extrapulmonary tuberculosis. HIV status was evaluated in 51 cases and 9 (7.64%) were seropositive. FNA cytology in 102 cases (71.3%) had caseating epithelioid granulomas while smear for AFB was positive in 57 cases (39.8%). Both culture and smear were positive in 29 (20.2%) cases. Combining both smear and culture yielded positive results in 47.5% cases. It was observed that AFB positivity was higher in untreated patients and with HIV positive cases. Further more, the triad of FNAC, AFB smear and culture were cheaper, foolproof and confirmatory than costlier tests like TB IgG, IgM, RTPCR and BACTEC.

Combined role of casoni test and indirect haemagglutination test in the diagnosis of hydatid disease.

PURPOSE: To study the combined role of Casoni test and indirect haemagglutination (IHA) test in the diagnosis of hydatid disease. METHODS: Twenty eight suspected cases of hydatid disease were subjected to Casoni intradermal test using commercially available antigen (Span Diagnostics, India) after collecting pre-test serum samples. The serum samples were tested by IHA using an indigenously developed IHA test. RESULTS: Considering the clinical diagnosis of hydatid disease as the gold standard, the specificity of both Casoni test and IHA was 47%, however, the sensitivity of IHA was higher (81.8%) than Casoni test (63.8%). With the two tests considered together the sensitivity was 90.9%. CONCLUSIONS: Combined use of Casoni test and IHA test could establish presumptive and cost effective diagnosis in upto 90.9% of clinically suspected cases of hydatid disease.

Pulmonary infection caused by Mycobacteria other than M. tuberculosis in and around Calcutta.

A study was undertaken to determine the prevalence rate of atypical mycobacteria in indolent fibrocavitary pulmonary diseases. 450 sputum specimens were examined and cultured, of which 15 were identified as atypical mycobacteria on repeated culture. No previous study was recorded from Calcutta. Compared to the results of previous workers from different regions of India, the prevalence rate seems high in this part of the country.

Comparative in vitro activity of fluoroquinolones against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Sixty clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis, 24 susceptible and 36 resistant to conventional primary antituberculous drugs, were tested against four fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, pefloxacin and norfloxacin). Ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin were found to be the most active, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.6 mg/l or less to all strains tested. Strains resistant to isoniazid and other antitubercular drugs also showed more or less equal MICs for these two drugs. Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37 Rv showed MIC < 0.6 mg/l on each occasion. Other agents viz., norfloxacin and pefloxacin showed lesser activity against all these strains tested in comparison to ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin.