Imprint cytologic examination as an adjunct to frozen section.

ABSTRACT

Imprint cytologic examination should be performed in all cases of frozen sections, especially when tumor or infectious agents are suspected. It has been shown to be a useful adjunct to the use of frozen sections. It gives superior results in cases of small biopsied specimens, lymph nodes, infective cases, isolated tumor cells or hemorrhagic tissue. From our series of 80 cases, the total diagnostic accuracy was 29/32 cases (90.6%) for benign tumors, 45/48 cases (93.7%) for malignant tumors, with 2/80 cases (2.5%) of false positive rate in borderline ovarian tumors, and 4/80 cases (5%) of false negative rate, in which 3 cases were due to insufficient material.