Abstract
Contamination of the epithelial cells exfoliatedfrom the oropharynx often makes us misdiagnosein oral cytology. Therefore cytologic and histologicstudies of the superficial area of the borderline between ciliated epithelium and squamous epitheliumwere made in order to overcome such misdiagnosisand to assure accurate and reliable oral and oropharyngeal cytologic diagnosis.
Smears of normal exfoliated cells were taken from33 healthy individuals and 8 corpses, while those ofexfoliated malignant tumor cells were taken from 9cases of oropharyngeal malignant neoplasm.
Smears were stained with Papanicolaou stain andhistologic sections taken simultaneously were stainedwith hematoxylin-eosin.
1. Smaller squamous cells were exfoliated fromthe epipharyngeal posterior wall and the pharyngealsurface of the soft palate, middle cells from themesopharyngeal posterior wall and the palatine tonsil, and larger cells from the oral surface of the softpalate and the buccal mucosa as observed in controlcases.
2. Cells from oropharynx consisted mainly of thebasophilic middle squamous cells and they were lesskeratinized in comparison with those from the oralmucosa.
3. Exfoliation of many ciliated cells were observed on the smears from the epipharyngeal posteriorwall and the pharyngeal surface of the soft palate, and they were classified morphologically into thefollowing four types: ciliated cell, goblet cell, typeI and type II cells.
4. A borderline between ciliated epithelium andsquamous epithelium of the pharynx was distinctand it was located approximately between epipharynx and mesopharynx.
5. Five cases of squamous cell carcinoma, onecancer (indefinite histologic type), and one reticulum cell sarcoma among 9 cases of oropharyngealmalignant tumor were positive and 2 cases of adenocarcinoma were false negative in cytology.
6. Malignant cells of squamous cell carcinomashowed a decrease of cytoplasmic-nuclear ratio (C/Nratio) in comparison with normal squamous cells.
7. As the result of cytologic observations of malignant tumors of the oropharynx, no specific findingof oropharyngeal carcinoma in cytology could benoticed in a series of the author's cases.
