Evaluation of pleural ?uid cytology for the diagnosis of pleural effusion: A retrospective study

Abstract

Cytological examination of pleural fluid has good specificity for the diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion (MPE). (1). To study the incidence of non-neoplastic and neoplastic effusions; (2). To study most common cause of neoplastic effusions.This study is an Observational retrospective study that was conducted from April 2021 to October 2022 (1.5 years). This study was conducted in the Cytology section, Pathology Department, of a tertiary care centre, Gujarat, India. A total of 248 pleural fluid samples were studied among them 186 were benign effusions, 48 were malignant effusions, 10 cases were unsatisfactory for evaluation and 4 cases were suspicious for malignancy.A descriptive study was performed to know the incidence of benign and malignant effusion in the pleural fluid sample. Pneumonia was the most common clinical diagnosis followed by tuberculosis and malignancy. Lung was the most common primary site for pleural effusion. In females, ovarian carcinoma was the primary aetiology followed by breast carcinoma. Cytodiagnosis of pleural fluid represents the cell population from a much larger representative area than obtained from the needle biopsy.