Accuracy of Bronchial Cytological Diagnosis in Lung Lesions in Comparison with Histopathology

The incidence of lung cancer has been increasing in the recent years. Bronchial cytology using Papanicolaou society of cytopathology (PSC) system is an effective method for triaging patients. The present study attempts to evaluate the bronchial cytological diagnosis with histopathological correlation of lung lesions. AIMS: i. To study the cytological features of lung lesions. ii. To assess the sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of bronchial cytology of lung lesions in comparison with histopathology. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Prospective study at the tertiary care hospital. METHODS AND MATERIAL: It included 63 cases of lung lesions, evaluated using the PSC system for reporting respiratory cytology. The cytological diagnosis was correlated with the final histopathological diagnosis. The study was conducted between January 2019 and June 2020. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: SPSS 20.0 software. RESULTS: The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy of bronchial cytology was 60%, 89%, 90%, 58.62%, and 71.42%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Bronchial cytology including bronchial wash, bronchial brush, endobronchial ultrasound/transbronchial needle aspiration, and computerized tomography-guided fine needle aspiration cytology can be used to increase the sensitivity and specificity for definitive diagnosis and better management.