Abstract
Objective: We investigated the cytological characteristics of renal tubular cells which appear at urinary cytology.
Study Design: The subjects were 30 cases of urinary cytology and 10 cases of renal scraping cytology and renal tissue samples made from surgical materials that were both provided to us from January 1999 to October 1999. We compared the results of urinary cytology, scraping cytology and renal tissue samples.
Results: We were able to identify to some degree the cytological characteristics of renal tubular cells that appeared at urinary cytology, and were able to roughly divide the renal tubular cells into proximal (I) and non-proximal (IIa·IIb) types.
The proximal (I) type renal tubular cells with a long diameter of 10-40μm showed oval, serrated, cylindrical or other shapes, and the cytoplasms were thick and coarsely granular. The nuclei were eccentric, with small N/C ratios.
The non-proximal (IIa·IIb) type renal tubular cells with a long diameter of 10-25μm showed oval or cubical shapes, and the nuclei were eccentric or central, with bigger N/C ratios than the proximal (I) ones.
Conclusion: Renal tubular cells appearing at urinary cytology were able to be broadly divided into the proximal (I) type, i.e. proximal convoluted tubular cells and the non-proximal (IIa·IIb) type, i. e., distal convoluted tubular cells, collecting tubular cells and collecting duct cells.
