Toward optimal use of the cytology laboratory: quality improvement and cerebrospinal fluid specimens.

Review of 203 consecutive cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens submitted concurrently to the cytology and hematology laboratories identified several quality improvement (QI) opportunities. Clinician/laboratory, interlaboratory, and intralaboratory issues are addressed. Data are utilized to formulate a multifaceted approach that would decrease patient expenditure, conserve laboratory resources, and improve the clinical value of CSF reports.

Persistence of Pneumocystis carinii in patients with AIDS receiving chemoprophylaxis.

Pneumocystis carinii organisms have been shown to persist throughout therapy in the majority of patients with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). This study evaluated the relationship between persistence of organisms and recurrence of disease, and the effect of chemoprophylaxis on bronchoalveolar lavage specimens. Seven patients receiving PCP chemoprophylaxis underwent serial bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) examinations at 1, 4, and 7 mo after recovery from a first episode of PCP.

The use of fine needle aspiration cytology in the management of human immunodeficiency virus-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease.

We prospectively studied the utility of fine needle aspiration (FNA) to diagnose non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin's disease (HD) in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and lymphadenopathy. Twenty-one patients with a clinical evidence of lymphoma underwent 24 FNA and site-specific tissue biopsies. Twenty-two of the 24 biopsy results were consistent with a malignant lymphoproliferative neoplasm: NHL (19 cases), HD (two cases), and T-cell lymphoma (one case).

A review of the fine-needle aspiration cytology findings in human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are subject to infections and neoplasms, which frequently result in palpable or radiologically identified masses. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) offers a rapid, simple, and cost effective approach for diagnosis of these masses. During a 2-yr period, 396 aspirates were performed on 362 HIV-infected patients within the LAC-USC Medical Center.