Use of silver stained nucleolar organizer regions [AgNORs] as a diagnostic tool in fine needle aspiration cytology smears of palpable breast lumps

ABSTRACT

Different modalities are used for the diagnosis of breast lesions. Fine needle aspiration cytology [FNAC] is now the most popular, single modality for diagnosing different breast diseases. One hundred patients with breast lesions underwent fine needle aspiration. In this study the FNAC smears were stained with routine stains and colloidal silver method for "AgNORs" staining. The "AgNOR" dots were counted in each case and analyzed statistically. The difference of the mean "AgNOR" numbers per cell noted on FNAC smears between benign neoplastic diseases of breast [range 5.45 to 8.44; mean 6.87; SD 0.92] and malignant neoplastic diseases of breast [range 12.94 to 25.38; mean 18.51; SD 2.90] was very highly significant with no overlap between the ranges of mean "AgNOR" counts in these groups. It is concluded from this study that colloidal silver staining technique for "AgNORs" has a valuable cytological diagnostic significance in breast tumours. It is suggested that the technique should be employed as a special stain on FNAC smears of breast lesions