1993 Volume 32 Issue 4 Pages 511-520
Imprint cytology of Hodgkin's disease was assessed in 20 cases, including 5 of lymphocyte predominance, 7 of mixed cellularity and 8 of the nodular scleosis type of disease, all of which were confirmed by histological examination. Acid phosphatase (ACP), alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase (alpha-NAE) and immunocytochemical staining was performed in some of the cases in addition to Papanicolaou and May-Giemsa stains in all of them. Cytologically, the common characteristics of Hodgkin cells (H cells) and Reed-Sternberg cells (RS cells) for all subtypes of Hodgkin's disease were flexible-appearing and faintly-stained nuclei with evenly and deeply stained nucleoli, But variations in the size and shape of the cells and some degree of pleomorphism in nuclei and nucleoli were observed. The results of ACP and alpha-NAE staiing demonstrated that H cells and RS cells exhibit various findings in the cytoplasm from faintly but diffusely positive and strongly positive staining in the Golgi area to completely negative staining. Immunocytochemically, H cells and RS cells were positive for L-26 in 4 out of 15 cases, for Leu M 1 in 4 out of 16, and for Ki-1 in 8 out of 14. It is interesting that some histiocyte-like or reticulum cell-like non-H and non-RS cells were positive for Ki-1 and Leu M 1. In the background, T cells were predominant in almost all of the cases, except for lymphocyte predominance, in which B cells were predominant. We conclude that imprint cytology will be very useful for the identification of H cells and RS cells and for the diagnosis of Hodgkin's disease.
