Endometrial aspiration cytology in gynecological disorders

CONTEXT: Endometrial aspiration is not a popular modality for the study of the endometrium despite its simplicity and potential utility. AIM: The present study was aimed at evaluating the utility of endometrial aspiration in various gynecological disorders. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this diagnostic accuracy study, 55 prospectively registered women with various gynecological disorders were evaluated clinically and subjected to endometrial aspiration cytology and study of endometrial histology. Endometrial aspiration was performed by infant feeding tube in 10 cases and intra cath cannula in 45 cases. The slides were stained with rapid Papanicolaou (PAP) stain and Leishman stain. RESULTS: Endometrial aspiration cytology showed 90% and 94.6% sampling adequacy with infant feeding tube and intra cath cannula, respectively. Intra cath cannula was very convenient to handle and superior to infant feeding tube in aspirating the endometrium. Of the two stains used, rapid PAP stain was less time-consuming and superior to Leishman stain in studying the nuclear details. Leishman stain was helpful in detecting cytoplasmic vacuoles of secretory endometrium. Overall diagnostic accuracy of endometrial cytology was 90.4% while that for morphological hormonal evaluation was 97.6%. It enjoyed a sensitivity of 91.66%, a specificity of 88.23%, positive predictive value of 94.28%, and negative predictive value of 83.33%. CONCLUSION: Intra cath cannula emerged as an inexpensive, effective, and convenient device for endometrial aspiration. Endometrial aspiration proved to be a fairly effective, simple, and informative diagnostic modality.