From "exfoliative" to "diagnostic" cytology. A statistical evaluation of pulmonary cytology.

During the year 1975, a total of 2,877 cytologic examinations in our laboratory included 2,277 examinations on 580 patients related to pulmonary cytology. Statistical evaluation of these studies indicates that the present trend of pulmonary cytology examination is moving from "exfoliative" cytology to "diagnostic" cytology. As long as one maintains the specificity of the examination high enough by the application of stringent criteria for cytodiagnosis, further radio and/or chemotherapy can be justifiably instituted on the basis of cytologic examination along with clinical evaluation of the patients when histopathologic diagnosis is not obtainable.