Sediment cytology in bone biopsies

The cytologic examination of smears prepared from the sediment of biopsy specimen fixatives ("sediment cytology") was used to study 70 bone lesions biopsied with a suspicion of malignancy. The smears were adequately cellular in most cases and showed good morphologic preservation; some contained fragments of tissue. Cytology was able to identify the smears from the 47 malignant lesions as malignant, but was not always able to identify the histologic type. While the osteoclastomas, Ewing's sarcomas and metastatic carcinomas were accurately diagnosed, the osteogenic sarcomas could only be identified as sarcomas and the scanty smears from chondrosarcomas only permitted a diagnosis of malignancy. The latter was also true for soft tissue lesions and lymphoma involving the bones. The 12 benign lesions yielded less cellular specimens and were more difficult to cytologically diagnose. The 11 inflammatory lesions were identified as nonmalignant. While this simple technique of sediment cytology can provide an early diagnosis for bone lesions, the final diagnosis requires the histopathologic study of the actual biopsy specimen.