Ultrafast Papanicolaou stain and cell-transfer technique enhance cytologic diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma

Diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) by fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is often hampered by aspirated blood that camouflage scattered Hodgkin cells and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells, and the absence of HRS cells in the smears submitted for immunopheno-typing. The objective of this study, was to develop a simple protocol to overcome these problems. The visibility of HRS cells in Diff-Quik, traditional, and Ultrafast Papanicolaou (UFP) stains in FNA smears were compared in 73 cases of HL. HRS cells were found to be most visible in UFP because of the hemolysis of aspirated blood and the highlighting of HRS cells by the redstaining nucleoli. UFP-stained smears containing HRS cells were subsequently immunophenotyped via the cell-transfer technique. UFP staining was found to have no deleterious effect on the immunoreactivity of cellular CD15 and CD30 antigens of HRS cells. This simple protocol enhances the cytologic diagnosis of HL, feasible even with a single smear.