Abstract
Objective : We reviewed the cytological possibility of estimating the histological subtypes of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in the cervical lymph nodes.
Study Design : Our materials were nine examples of cervical lymph nodes. The patients consisted of six men and three women from 19 to 83 years old. We used seven fine needle aspiration specimens and three imprint specimens. Morphometric image analysis of background lymphocytes was also done.
Results : The number of Hodgkin/Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells and large cells were very few in Case 1 (Negative), and few in Case 2 (False positive). In Case 3, it was difficult to make a differential diagnosis because of metastasis from renal cell carcinoma. Six classical HL cases (Positive) consisted of three with nodular sclerosis, two with mixed cellularity, and one with lymphocyte-rich subtypes. There were significant differences between the size of the background lymphocytes and subtypes, and between the distribution of the nuclei in HRS cells and subtypes.
Conclusion : It is cytologically difficult to make a definite diagnosis without a sufficient number of background lymphocytes and HRS cells in aspiration and imprint specimens. In addition, we observed significant difference between both the size of the lymphocytes and subtypes, and the number of HRS cell nuclei and different subtypes.
