Thames Valley Cytology Society

Volume 5 Issue 1
January 2002

 

Check-list: from TVCS meeting on Architecture of Cervical Cytology

Dr Robin Moseley: Report by Katie Thunder, Watford General Hospital

 

Micro-biopsies and 'nasty dark cell groups' where multiple criteria (architecture and cytolnuclear changes) must be applied.

Features of CIN 3 micro-biopsies

  • crowded cellular sheets with cellular overlapping and/or multi-layering
  • multi-layered cellular sheets exhibiting steep relief (mountain-like e.g.Ayers Rock)
  • sheets with frayed or circumscribed edges
  • chaotic uneven spaced cells
  • lack of intracellular borders
  • increased nuclear size
  • high nuclear/cytolplasmic ratio
  • abnormal chromatin pattern
  • nuclear pleomorphism

Problems

  • partial involvement of benign cell sheets - interphase of CIN 3 with normal cells
  • deep fracturing of stromal tissue plane
  • CGIN - less multi-layered and less steep relief
  • parabasal sheets can lead to false positive results as multi-layered however, they have shallow relief and taper out at the edges. With this difficult area there are two choices: refer or repeat after oestrogen cream.
  • follicular cervicitis.
  • lower uterine segment sampling
  • TEM - following cone biopsy, difficult to distinguish from endometriosis, but associated with shallow relief.

Tips

  • Examine edges - look for abnormal cytonuclear detail.
  • Look for dis-cohesive cells.
  • Focus in and out of grops.
  • Look for mitotic figures.
  • Steep relief - groups of cells coming up out of the slide at you, almost a 3D appearance as opposed to shallow relief, likened to a the seashore (slight incline).
  • Dispersed dyskaryotic cells.