DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i07.007

Pages: 2343-2347

Neoplasms of upper gastrointestinal tract specially malignancy is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Endoscopy has greatly facilitated the detection and diagnosis of gastrointestinal lesions. Early cancer is highly curable. Unfortunately most early cancers are asymptomatic. Brush cytology and biopsy are complimentary procedures for the detection of upper gastrointestinal neoplasms. 100 cases of non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions were studied over a period of one year from January 2015 to December 2015 at the Department of Pathology, Gandhi Hospital/Medical College, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Patients between 21 to 75 years of age presenting to the department of Gastroenterology with complaints of dysphagia, retrosternal pain, vomiting and loss of weight were included in the study. Endoscopy was done using flexible video endoscopy on patients with ulcer or polypoid and ulcerative growths in the upper GIT. Exfoliated cells from the lesion were collected by means of a brush introduced through the endosope. Smears were made by directly smearing the brush on to a slide and fixed with a spray fixative containing 95% ethyl alcohol. Slides were stained by Hematoxylin & Eosin and Papanicoulou stains. After brushing, multiple biopsies were taken from the representative area of the lesions. Cytohistological correlation was done. Brush cytology is a useful, inexpensive procedure that gives rapid diagnosis in cases of endoscopically visible suspicious lesions of upper GIT. It is an accurate diagnostic adjunct to biopsy in the detection of cancers at an early stage.