1996 Volume 35 Issue 2 Pages 81-87
This prospective study was designed to compare the diagnostic accuracy and cytologic findings of paired voided urine and bladder washings in 81 specimens from 59 patients with histologically confirmed bladder cancer. Of the 81 specimens, 33 (40.7%) of voided urine and 59 (72.8%) of bladder washings were cytologically diagnosed as positive. Thus, bladder washing cytology was superior to voided urine cytology and significant differences were evident between cytologic results. In bladder washings, the number and rate of positive specimens in each category were as follows, 8 (66.7%) for Grade 1 tumor and 35 (66.0%) for Grade 2 tumor, 48 (70.6%) for papillary and 11 (84.6%) for nonpapillary type tumor, 51 (72.9%) for invasive and 8 (72.7%) for non-invasive tumor, and 29 (80.6%) for reccurent tumor. On the other hand, in voided urine, the number and rate of positive specimens in each category were as follows, 2 (16.7%) for Grade 1 tumor and 16 (30.2%) for Grade 2 tumor, 27 (39.7%) for papillary type and 6 (46.1%) for non-papillary type tumor, 30 (42.8%) for invasive and 3 (27.3%) for non-invasive tumor, and 12 (33.3%) for reccurent tumor. Comparison of cytologic results in pairs of voided urine and bladder washings in patients with papillary and non-papillary tumor, according to grade, revealed significant differences in Grade 2 invasive papillary tumor.
As regards cytologic findings, numerous well preserved cells appeared in bladder washings and often formed large clusters. The cells found in bladder washings were larger than those found in voided urine, and their nuclear borders were thin with a clearly observable nuclear structure.
