Fine - Needle Aspiration Biopsy Smears in the Diagnosis of Liver Diseases

The different opinions concerning the value of fine-needle biopsy may partly be explained by divergencies in results between examiners. 103 coded fine-needle aspiration biopsy smears were stained by the May-Grünwald-Giemsa's method and examined independently by two investigators by light microscopy. Complete agreement in classification or slight disagreement occurred in 94–98% of the smears for recognition of the degree of vacuolization, granulation, bile accumulation, and nuclear size variation. Similar results were obtained in 83 and 90% for bile epithelium and connective tissue, respectively. Correlation between the clinical diagnoses and the cytological alterations did not show any characteristic ‘profile'. In 5 cases with acute alcoholic hepatitis and in patients with cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis high grades of bile duct epithelium were present. A correct diagnosis of liver cancer was made by both examiners in the same percentage of cases in the smears as in the conventional liver biopsies.