• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2005

Carcinoid tumors of the thymus are vanishingly rare, and the characteristic cytologic findings of this condition have never before been reported in Korea. Recently, we encountered a 58-year-old woman who had been suffering from general weakness and weight loss for several months. Radiological imaging revealed a large anterior mediastinal mass. A fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of the mass showed predominantly scattered single cells, as well as some loose clusters of small cells with scanty cytoplasm. Some of these small cells exhibited plasmacytoid features, with moderately granular cytoplasm. We also discuss the cytological differential diagnosis between thymic carcinoid and other mediastinal tumors.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.127-134
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• 1993

Percutaneous needle biopsy of pulmonary lesion with use of fluoroscopic guidance is well established as a diagnostic tool but limited by the small size and inaccessibility of certain lesions. However, percutaneous needle biopsy has been used increasingly in relation to advance and the safty of smaller biopsy needle and new imaging modalities such as ultrasound and CT. CT, because of its characteristics of high resolution, allows tissue sampling with considerable safety from area that heretofore could not be visualized under fluoroscopy. The authors summarized 44 pulmonary lesions that underwent CT-guided transthoracic biopsy with fine-needle over a 14 month period and analyzed the sensitivity of PTNB. CT-guided PTNB was done with 20 gauge or 22 gauge Westcott biopoy needle(Manan medical products, USA). A diagnosis was made in 27 of 44 cases(61%) including malignany in 19 of 24 cases and benignancy in 8 of 20 cases. The pulmonary mass lesions were located at the peripheral zone of the lung field in 33 cases and at the central zone in 11 cases. Complications were observed in 2 cases which were pneumothorax and hemoptysis each but specific therapy was not required. The sensitivity of PTNB by one session was 61%(27/44). The sensitivity of malignancy was 79%(19/24) and benignancy was 40%(8/20). These results suggest the usefulness of PTNB using fine needles be increased in earlier diagnosis and improved staging of pulmonary nodular lesions without significant complications.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.194-198
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• 1997

Extraskeletal mesenchymal chondrosarcoma is a relatively rare tumor and its cytologic findings have rarely been reported. We experienced a case of mesenchymal chondrosarcoma of soft tissue of the right lateral neck diagnosed by fine needle aspiration biopsy in a 59 year-old man. Cytologic findings showed two cell components. One was an undifferentiated, small cell component with moderate amount of cytoplasm and spindle nuclei. The second population was a chondroid component. These cytologic findings were diagnostic to mesenchymal chondrosarcoma.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 1990

CT guided percutaneous fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of the liver for both cytologic and histologic examination has great value in diagnosing liver malignancy. From March, 1986 to April, 1990, 62 patients with the clinical impression of liver malignancy underwent CT guided percutaneous FNA biopsy. Of these, 43 cases were reviewed for this study, 19 were reported to be liver cell carcinoma, 2 were adenocarcinoma, 11 were reported as anaplastic cell present, and the rest (11 cases) were negative (9) or necrotic (2). Among the 11 cases of the last group, 9 were diagnosed as liver cell carcinoma and 2 were necrotic histologically. Retrospective review, in order to clarify the cause of cytologic diagnostic error, of both cytologic and histologic slides of all cases showed discordance of 23% between these diagnoses and sensitivity is 93.9% and specificity is 90.9%. The reasons were as follows ; 1) the lack of awareness of tumor cells of well differentiated liver cell carcinoma (4 cases), 2) missed tumor cells due to too scanty cellularity (1 case), 3) improper smear (2 cases) and no tumor cell In the cytologic smears (3 cases). In such cases, at the initiation of FNA, a correct diagnosis of liver malignancy could only be made by a combination of cytologic and histologic examinations. However after three years' experience we can conclude that cytomorphologic features of liver cell carcinoma are sufficiently distinctive from other liver malignancies to be diagnostic.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.584-587
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• 1995

Mammary tuberculosis is a rare entity. The incidence of the disease varies from 0.025% to 4.5% of all surgically treated breast diseases. The surgical resection is required for diagnosis of mammary tuberculosis, since the clinician may confuse tuberculosis mastitis with either carcinoma or breast abscess. Treatment is the combination of resection and chemotherapy. We report a case of mammary tuberculosis diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration and biopsy(FNAB), along with a review of literature.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.93-97
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• 1997

A case of cervical chordoma diagnosed by fine needle aspiration is discussed. A 41year-old male was admitted due to dyspnea on neck flexion. Radiologic image revealed a retrotracheal superior mediastinal solid mass. Aspiration cytology showed many clusters of oval or large polygonal cells having abundant eosinophilic or bubbly cytoplasm in an amorphous blue-gray mucoid background. The nuclei were round and showed size variation, coarse granular chromatin, and indistinct nucleoli. Some cells contained brown granular pigments in the cytoplasm. Mitoses were rarely found. The cytoplasm was strongly positive for PAS stain. Immunohistochemical stains using cell block revealed positive reaction for cytokerain, EMA, vimentin, and S-100 protein. The confirmative diagnosis was made by following excisional biopsy. Electron microscopic study revealed large pools of intracytoplasmic glycogen and microfilaments. This is the first case of cervical chordoma diagnosed by aspiration cytology to our knowledge in Korean literature.

• Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.404-410
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• 2018

Background: Fine-needle aspiration cytology serves as a safe, economical tool in evaluating thyroid nodules. However, about 30% of the samples are categorized as indeterminate. Hence, many immunocytochemistry markers have been studied, but there has not been a single outstanding marker. We studied the efficacy of CD56 with human bone marrow endothelial cell marker-1 (HBME-1) in diagnosis in the Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (TBSRTC) category III. Methods: We reviewed ThinPrep liquid-based cytology (LBC) samples with Papanicolaou stain from July 1 to December 31, 2016 (2,195 cases) and selected TBSRTC category III cases (n=363). Twenty-six cases were histologically confirmed as benign (six cases, 23%) or malignant (20 cases, 77%); we stained 26 LBC slides with HBME-1 and CD56 through the cell transfer method. For evaluation of reactivity of immunocytochemistry, we chose atypical follicular cell clusters. Results: CD56 was not reactive in 18 of 20 cases (90%) of malignant nodules and showed cytoplasmic positivity in five of six cases (83%) of benign nodules. CD56 showed high sensitivity (90.0%) and relatively low specificity (83.3%) in detecting malignancy (p=.004). HBME-1 was reactive in 17 of 20 cases (85%) of malignant nodules and was not reactive in five of six cases (83%) of benign nodules. HBME-1 showed slightly lower sensitivity (85.0%) than CD56. The specificity in detecting malignancy by HBME-1 was similar to that of CD56 (83.3%, p=.008). CD56 and HBME-1 tests combined showed lower sensitivity (75.0% vs 90%) and higher specificity (93.8% vs 83.3%) in detecting malignancy compared to using CD56 alone. Conclusions: Using CD56 alone showed relatively low specificity despite high sensitivity for detecting malignancy. Combining CD56 with HBME-1 could increase the specificity. Thus, we suggest that CD56 could be a useful preoperative marker for differential diagnosis of TBSRTC category III samples.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.92-96
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• 1996

Extrathoracic metastases of thymomas are extremely rare, occurring in less than 2% of cases. We present a case of metastatic thymoma in the liver diagnosed by aspiration biopsy. A fine-needle aspirate from a hepatic mass of a 65-year old man who had a history of malignant thymoma locally invading pericardium was examined. Nests of epithelial cells with few scattered lymphocytes were present. The nuclei of the epithelial cells were round to oval and appeared relatively uniform and regular, with fine chromatin pattern. They had one or two, small but lather conspicuous nucleoli. Unlike previous reports on the findings of the aspiration cytology of thymomas, the characteristic biphasic pattern was not present in this case.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.172-175
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• 1994

Anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid is one of the most malignant tumors and survival for longer than three years after diagnosis is exceptional. Multinucleated giant cells of osteoclastlike appearance are seen un some of the anaplastic carcinoma, but only three cases in which the diagnosis was made by fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology are reported in the international literature. We experienced a case of anaplastic carcinoma with osteoclastlike giant cells in a 66-yr-old female, diagnosed by FNA cytology. The smears revealed two cell populations: multinucleated giant cells and large polygonal or spindle shaped malignant cells. The FNA cytodiagnosis of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma containing osteoclastlike giant cells was substantiated by subsequent biopsy.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.106-112
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• 1994

Fine needle aspiration biopsy has been proved as a safe, accurate and cost-effective diagnostic modality in palpable breast lesions. Cytologically, fibrocystic disease can be classified into 3 categories as nonproliferative breast disease, proliferative breast disease without atypia, and proliferative breast disease with atypia. This terminology for fine needle aspirates is compatible with that of diagnostic histopathology. Cytologic differentiation of nonproliferative disease from proliferative breast disease is important, since the risk of cancer development in cases of atypical hyperplasia is 4-5 times higher than that of general population. Twenty five fine needle aspirates of fibrocystic disease confirmed by subsequent histopathology were re-evaluated and classified into 3 categories depending on their architectural and nuclear features. In addition, these aspirates were scored according to the cytologic grading system, devised by Masood et al. and based on six cytologic criteria. Concordance rates between cytomorpholgic diagnosis and cytologic diagnosis using the cytologic criteria grading system and histologic diagnosis were 88% and 92%, respectively.