Evaluation of fine-needle aspiration biopsy smears in the diagnosis of liver iron overload.

Abstract Estimate of stainable iron in fine-needle aspiration biopsy smears has been evaluated in relation to histological estimate of stainable iron in needle biopsy sections and in relation to liver iron in needle biopsy specimens analysed chemically. Histochemical iron was arbitrarily graded 0–4. The histochemical grading in sections agreed well with that in smears, but there was a high degree of overlapping between the chemical iron values in the different gradings. However, it can be concluded that the smear method is valuable as a simple screening test in the diagnosis of liver iron overload; grade 4 in most cases indicates definitely increased liver iron concentration.