The cytologic characteristics of hairy leukoplakia (HL) are described based on the findings observed in four lesions. All cases were confirmed by histologic study, and Epstein-Barr virus DNA was detected by means of in situ hybridization of tissue sections. All smears from the lesions exhibited a distinctive appearance and three types of epithelial changes were observed: (1) intranuclear inclusions of Cowdry type A, (2) intranuclear inclusions with a ground-glass appearance, and (3) clumping and margination of chromatin around the nuclear membrane. Other findings were the presence of bacterial colonies in all lesions and Candida organisms in three of them. The results of this study suggest that conventional exfoliative cytologic examination may prove to be a useful, simple, cost-effective, and reliable method to diagnose hairy leukoplakia.

Vitreous humour is a biologically weak immune cavity of the eye, and is in some way isolated from pathogens of the rest of the organism due to a series of special immunological privileges. However, it is a place where processes of varied ethiology (immune, infectious or neoplastic) can develop indirectly due to leakage or release of molecules or even cells into the vitreous chamber, or may be the receptacle of molecules derived from processes developed in other organs in close contact with the vitreous (such as the retina or other underlying layers such as the choroid), which makes the vitreous body an accessible place for diagnosis and with less potential for side effects for analysis than other adjacent eye structures. This article reviews the most frequent pathologies that requires vitreous diagnosis, the most commonly used approaches for sampling and the diagnostic tests that can be performed on vitreous samples.