Imprint cytology of needle core-biopsy specimens of breast lesions: Is it a useful adjunt to rapid assessment breast clinics?

This study aimed at assessing the practicability of imprint cytology (IC) of core biopsy (CB) specimens in order to achieve one-stop diagnosis of breast lesions. In total, 199 symptomatic patients underwent free-hand CB of the suspected breast lesions. The slides were stained by Diff-QuikÒ and reported independently of histological reporting. For practical reasons cytology specimens were graded as follows: C1=inadequate, as less than 4 groups of epithelial cells were seen, C2=benign, C3=probably benign, C4=probably malignant and C5=positive for malignancy. The results of IC were correlated with CB histology. Absolute sensitivity of the IC was 85.0% and complete sensitivity was 89.2% when correlated with CB. Specificity (biopsy cases only) of IC was 53.1% while full specificity was 53.1%. Positive predictive value of C5 was 99.3%, C4 55.6 % and C3 was 100%. Overall suspicious rate was 5.5%. It was concluded that IC is a reliable way of diagnosing symptomatic breast lesions in one-stop breast clinic and retains the advantage of pre-operative availability of detailed pathological characteristics of tumours for treatment planning.