• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.112-118
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• 2007

Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has become a highly preferred, minimally invasive diagnostic tool of choice in the diagnosis of a palpable breast mass owing to its sensitivity, specificity, cost-effectiveness, and expediency. Although breast needle biopsies have been widely employed recently due to the increased detection rate of non-palpable early lesions, the importance of the use of FNAC cannot be underestimated. It comprises part of the diagnostic triad for the breast along with a physical examination and mammography, which together contribute to an increasing diagnostic accuracy. The differential diagnosis of a benign and malignant lesion is of the utmost importance in the diagnosis of breast lesions, and therefore the understanding of the possible diagnostic pitfalls is of great importance.

• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.174-178
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• 1995

Granulomatous mastitis is a rare inflammatory breast lesion, usually presented with rapidly enlarging palpable mass in young parous women and can simulate carcinoma. Unnecessary surgical procedure can be avoided if the nature of the lesion were defined by fine needle aspiratio(FNA) cytology. We experienced a case of bilateral granulomatous mastitis diagnosed by FNA cytology. The patient was a 31-year-old woman with one month history of a rapidly enlarging mass in the left breast, considered clinically to be malignant. After 4 years, she presented with a palpable mass in the right breast. The FNA cytology smears contained numerous aggregates of epithelioid histiocytes admixed with Langhans' and foreign body giant cells, lymphoytes, neutrophils and apoptotic debris leading to a diagnosis of granulomatous mastitis. The subsequent lumpectomy of the left breast confirmed the diagnosis of granulomatous mastitis. The FNA cytology smears from right breast showed identical cytologic findings.

• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.31-35
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• 2005

Eccrine acrospiroma is a rare adnexal tumor of the skin. When the clinical presentation is that of a breast lump, diagnosis can be difficult. Also, most of the cytopathologists are not familial with the cytologic features of this tumor and this is responsible for diagnostic pitfalls. We experienced a case of eccrine acrospiroma of the right breast in a 41-year-old female, misdiagnosed by fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC). FNAC was characterized by tight clusters or sheets of small round cells, polygonal cells, and spindle cells and tubule like structures within clusters. Myoepithelial cells were not noted in the clusters. The diagnosis of eccrine acrospiroma was confirmed by histology.

• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.52-56
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• 1994

We experienced a case of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology of breast which showed atypical proliferative lesion. It was very difficult to differentiate this case from malignancy, because of hypercellular smear and many clusters composed of large, atypical ductal cells. However, it showed other features favoring benignancy, such as tendency of cellular cohesiveness, only slightly increased nucleus/cytoplasm ratio and most importantly presence of myoepithelial cells. It's histologic diagnosis was intraductal hyperplasia with atypia. This case indicates that all atypical breast FNA specimen should lead to the suggestion of surgical biopsy for avoiding over- or under-diagnosis.

• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.100-111
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• 2007

Fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology of breast disease is recognized to be highly accurate and cost effective, especially when this is used in combination with clinical examination and imaging as part of a triple approach. A probabilistic/categorical approach is used for the classification of breast FNA specimens. Criteria are defined from the perspective of the likelihood of making a definitive diagnosis of cancer on excision. This approach is an accurate way of classifying breast FNA specimens, and this can be reliably applied regardless of the level of experience of the pathologist for interpreting the case. When a definitive diagnosis of malignancy is made, the next step is to determining the specific histologic types of the malignancy according to their cytological features. In order to make an accurate diagnosis of carcinoma and for correct typing a tumor, an adequate, correctly sampled aspirate without any other artifacts is required.

• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.52-59
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• 1992

A number of studies have shown the value of fine needle aspiration cytology for the diagnosis of breast lesions, but reports on the comparison of cytologic and histologic variations of breast cancers are few. We reviewed histologically proven 106 breast aspirates with an emphasis on the cytology of ductal carcinomas and of an area of uncertain atypia. Positive and negative predictive values of breast aspiration cytology were 100% On review of the cases originally diagnosed as atypia of uncertain nature (19 %), features more suggestive of malignancy or benignancy were recognizable in most underdiagnosed cases and a half of overdiagnosed cases, respectively. However, indistinguishable atypism also remained. Thirty seven cases out of 53 infiltrating duct carcinomas revealed malignant cytology, with variations in background, cellularity, morphology of cell groups, and extent of isolated tumor cells. When classifying the infiltrating duct carcinomas into scirrhous, solid-tubular, and papillotubular types, scirrhous type frequently appeared as irregularly shaped tight or loose cell clusters, and solid-tubular type as round-margined cell balls.

• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.88-92
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• 2002

Scattered single cells or variable sized clusters of signet ring cells in the aspirated smears of breast lesions are almost exclusively associated with carcinoma. The signet ring cells are defined as those containing a prominent intracytoplasmic vacuole or amorphous cytoplasm diffusely dispersed with mucin. The primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the breast behaves more aggressively than carcinoma without signet ring cells. Therefore, it is very important to make a correct diagnosis of signet ring cell carcinoma. Fine needle aspiration cytology is useful for diagnosis of breast lesions Including signet ring cell carcinoma. We report two cases, which showed mostly signet ring cells in the aspirated smears of the breast. One case consisted of numerous individual signet ring cells and variable sized cell clusters in rather mucoid background. The tumor cells had abundant amorphous cytoplasm filled with dispersed mucin or occasionally mucin vacuoles(PAS +) and eccentric nuclei. The resected mass revealed mucinous carcinoma. The other showed the cytologic findings of low cellularity, and small loosely cohesive signet ring cell clusters with mild nuclear pleomorphism. It was confirmed as lobular signet ring cell carcinoma in the resected tumor.

• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.157-160
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• 2007

Granular cell tumor (GCT) of the breast is a rare clinical entity, and is believed to be of schwannian origin and to follow a benign clinical course. A 50-year-old woman presented with a slowly growing mass in the right breast. Fine needle aspiration cytology revealed a cellular smear containing isolated or clustered cells showing round to oval nuclei with abundant oncocytic granular cytoplasm. Nuclei showed a fine granular chromatin pattern and occasional small single nucleoli. Cell boundaries were poorly defined, and naked nuclei were frequently found, Histologically, the tumor showed features of typical GCT, and immunohistochemical staining findings strongly supported the diagnosis. The present study demonstrates that GCT of the breast can mimic malignant lesions of breast both clinically and radiologically. The recognition of its cytologic features and suspicion of this lesion would undoubtedly aid the correct diagnosis of mammary GCT.

• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.34-40
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• 2008

Fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology of the breast is a useful method for diagnosing breast lesions. Yet making the definite diagnosis with performing FNA is limited by some problems, such as the low cellularity, the poor preservation and the obscuring background. Recent studies have found that liquid-based cytology solves such problems, but it is an expensive method and it is limited by the loss of the background information. The purpose of this study is to compare the Liqui-$PREP^{TM}$, a new manual liquid-based method of cytology, and the conventional smears for analyzing breast FNA cytology materials. A total of 31 randomized FNA specimens of breast were studied. In each case, both the conventional smears and the Liqui-$PREP^{TM}$ method were performed, and the smears were evaluated for cellularity, cellular preservation, the background, the cytologic features and the architectural arrangement. The cellularity and architectural arrangement were equal for both preparations. The Liqui-$PREP^{TM}$ specimens showed better cellular preservation, loss of the obscuring background, no overlapping of cells and a smaller area to screen compared with the conventional smears. Moreover, it has the potential advantages of being able to use the remaining specimens for immunohistochemical study and ploidy analysis, and it can reduce the costs for preparation compared with the other liquid-based methods of cytology. But some background information is lost in the Liqui-$PREP^{TM}$ specimens, the same as the other liquid-based methods of cytology. In conclusion, the Liqui-$PREP^{TM}$ and conventional smears showed good correlation, but they have their respective advantages and disadvantages. These results suggest that Liqui-$PREP^{TM}$ can contribute to making the accurate diagnosis with performing breast FNA cytology when it is used along with other methods.

• 대한세포병리학회지
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.51-59
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• 1990

Fine needle aspiration biopsy cytology (FNA) for diagnosis of a variety of breast tumors has been proven to be a simple, safe, and cost saving diagnostic methodology with high accuracy. Cytologic specimens from 1,029 fine needle aspirations of the breast during last 3-year period were reviewed and subsequent biopsies from 107 breast lesions were reevaluated for cytohistological correlation. FNA had a sensitivity of 81.6% and a specificity of 98.3%. One oui of 107 cases biopsied revealed a false positive result (0.9%) and the case was due to misinterpretation of apocrine metaplastic cells in necrotic backgound as malignant cells. A false negative rate was 8.4% (9 of 107 cases biopsied). Six of 9 false negative cases were resulted from insufficient aspirates for diagnosis, and remaining three of 9 false negative cases revealed extensive necrosis with no or scanty viable cells on smears. The results indicate that for reducing false positive and false negative rates of FNA, an experienced cytopathologist and a proficient aspirator are of great importance.