Usefulness Of Touch Preparation Cytology In Postmortem Diagnosis: A Study From The University Hospital Of The West Indies

Touch preparation or imprint cytology has been shown to be of value in the diagnosis of surgical pathology specimens and a few studies have also suggested a role in postmortem examination. The use of the technique in postmortem diagnosis has not been previously reported from a developing country. We prospectively examined 40 autopsy cases (M:F ratio 1.2:1, mean age 50.7 +/- 22.3 years) at the University Hospital of the West Indies with touch preparation cytology in addition to routine histology. A total of 120 specimens were obtained from a wide range of organs with the cytologic diagnosis being malignant in most cases (75 %); the overall concordance between cytologic and histologic diagnoses was 92.2%. Touch preparation cytology proved to be an accurate, simple, fast and relatively inexpensive method of postmortem diagnosis, and is likely to be of particular value in areas where cost-containment is critical.