What is the difference between cytology and histology

Generally, cytology has three main branches related to other study areas. They are cell biology, cytogenetics , and cytopathology. Basically, cell biology studies the structure, constituents, physiological features, function, interactions, life cycle, division, and death of cells. Moreover, both cytogenetics and cytopathology study cellular diseases.

However, cytogenetics studies the genetic basis of cellular diseases. On the other hand, cytopathology studies the structural and functional properties of cellular diseases. Figure 1: Hodgkin Lymphoma Cytology.

These studies help to detect cancer in the body. But other tests will be conducted before affirming the presence of cancer in the body after undertaking urine cytology tests. Histology is the study of tissues and histopathology is the study of tissues in relation to their diseases.

It is done by conducting surgery and biopsy on the tissue for examination purposes. The tissue is usually removed from the body or plant for experts to dissect while in a fresh state.

The result usually takes two weeks to be out. If your result takes longer than two weeks, consider consulting your doctor for assistance. The main difference between histology and cytology is that histology is the examination of tissue under a microscope while cytology is the examination of cells under a microscope.

Histology focuses on providing excellent details of tissues and cytology on offering excellent details of cells. But histological studies are wider than that of cytology. Both cytology and histology are important fields in biology and medicine. The smears were stained with Papanicolaou Pap and hematoxylin and eosin H and E stains. Hundred and twenty six cases of STT were classified according to the cytological and histological diagnosis.

On histology, cases The relative incidence of STTs was 0. Most of the STT i. Out of cases, 81 cases The benign STT occurred in 65 The malignant STTs were seen in 15 Thus, malignant STTs were seen more commonly in males.

Maximum number of benign STTs i. Most of them were lipomas and hemangiomas. Malignancies were more common in lower extremities, nine cases Most common malignant tumors in lower extremity were liposarcomas and fibrosarcomas, while in abdomen, they were leiomyosarcomas.

Two cases of STT involving multiple sites were one case each of fibroma and neurofibroma. Size of benign and malignant STTs ranged from 0. Among the six cytomorphological categories, there were 42 cases Seventeen cases On cytological diagnosis [ Table 3 ] out of 42 lipomatous tumors, 40 were diagnosed as benign and 2 as malignant. One case of well differentiated atypical lipomatous tumor was falsely reported as benign lipomatous tumor on cytology due to lack of lipoblasts.

Thus, on final histological diagnosis, there were 47 benign and 4 malignant lipomatous tumors [ Figure 1 ]. The next largest category on cytology was spindle cell tumors comprising of 34 24 benign and 10 malignant cases. On histology, there were 43 32 benign and 11 malignant cases, further sub divided into tumors of fibroblasts [ Figure 2 ] and myofibroblasts 11 cases , fibrohistiocytic tumors 10 cases , tumors of peripheral nerves [ Figure 3 ] 13 cases , tumors of smooth muscle 6 cases and synovial sarcoma 3 cases.

The change in cytological diagnosis on biopsy included 1 case of malignant fibrous histiocytoma MFH to benign fibrous histiocytoma BFH. One case of synovial sarcoma was diagnosed as benign spindle cell tumor due to the presence of spindle cells and blood in smears. On histology, it showed infiltrating margins, pattern of hemangiopericytoma and malignant spindle cells with mitosis [ Figure 4 ].

We found that the most common malignant STTs were spindle cell tumors 11 cases. Fibrosarcoma a High cellularity, malignant cells forming herring bone pattern Hist. All the six cases of round cell tumors RCT were diagnosed as malignant on cytology. Two cases of RCT with uniform round nuclei were diagnosed as benign lesions on histology as glomus tumor and paraganglioma, 1 case each. Out of the five four benign and 1 malignant myxoid tumors on cytology, four cases which showed myxoid material with spindle cells were neurofibromas on histology.

One case in which cytology showed abundant myxoid material with malignant spindle cells was myxofibrosarcoma on histology. Epithelioid sarcoma a Bizarre large pleomorphic cell. Out of the 25 vascular tumors on histology, there were 20 cases of hemangioma and 1 case of lymphangioma diagnosed mainly on clinical history and examination as FNAC showed only blood and lymph respectively with a few endothelial cells in occasional cases.

Three cases of hemangioma were inconclusive on cytology. The diagnosis of glomus tumor as round cell tumor 1 case on cytology was corrected on histology. On the basis of FNAC cases True positive could be correctly diagnosed out of which 87 were benign and 17 were malignant. There were three false positive cases which were benign diagnosed as malignant and two false negative cases which were malignant diagnosed as benign on cytology and 17 inconclusive cases diagnosed correctly on histology.

Histopathological confirmation of benign and malignant STT gave a positive predictive value of The application of FNAC has lead to reasonably accurate diagnoses of various types of soft tissue tumors in various parts of the body. Complex heterogeneity is a challenging factor in the diagnosis of STTs.

This study was conducted on patients of soft tissue tumors. Related Differences. November 5, November 5, by Harold G. November 3, November 2, by Harold G. February 10, by Harold G.