Utility of Imprint Cytology in Intraoperative Diagnosis of Ovarian Neoplasm

Background: The ovaries are female reproductive organs and at the same time, the site of origin of some of the most complex as well as lethal neoplasms.

Aims: The present study was conducted to assess whether imprint cytology can help in rapid diagnosis of ovarian neoplasm and thus facilitate individualized treatment.

Materials and Methods: This prospective study was carried out in the Department of Pathology in a tertiary care hospital in collaboration with Department of Gynaecology after taking Institutional ethical committee approval. Fifty patients, attending Gynaecology and Obstetrics OPD & indoor and diagnosed clinically & radiologically (USG) as cases of ovarian tumour was selected. After taking valid consent from the patients, a detailed history was taken and clinical examination was done preoperatively. Imprint smears were made intraoperatively from fresh samples and stained with M.G.G. stain for air dried smears and Papanicolaou stain for alcohol fixed smears.

Results: Out of total 50 cases, 32(64%) was epithelial tumours and 18(36%) non-epithelial tumour cases. Age group varied from 5 to 62 years. Overall sensitivity in our study to diagnose benign and malignant ovarian tumours by imprint cytology is 94% and the specificity is 74% with positive and negative predictive value of 63% and 96% respectively. Diagnostic accuracy was 78% with high statistical significance (p<0.001).

Conclusion: By taking samples from a variety of representative tumour areas, the accuracy of this method can be improved. Imprint cytology's accuracy is on par with that of frozen section histology. Therefore, extensive use of imprint cytology should be made in the management of patients with ovarian neoplasia.