耳鼻咽喉科領域に於ける惡性腫瘍の塗抹診断法に就いて

　緒言

　1934年，Papanicolouが．婦人科領域に於て。膣分泌物の塗抹標本の細胞学的検索による子宮癌の早期診断法を発表して以来．種々な領域に於いても同樣な試みがなされている，我が耳鼻咽喉科領域でも．悪性腫瘍の大部分が．直接．或は間接に塗抹標本を作成し得る関係にあるのであるが．内外の文献を探ぐるに．かゝる報告は極めて少ない樣である．

　従来，耳鼻咽喉科領域の悪性腫瘍の診断にあたつては，最終的決定をなし得るのは試検切除片の組織学的検索であるとなされていた．しかしながら，実際に之をなしてみると，試験切除片の採取部位が複雑な為，又，同時に存する炎症性変化の為，真の腫瘍部位がはずれていたり，又．その組織像が非定型的となつたりしており，屡々誤診する事があり，臨床所見と組織学的診断が一致せぬ事に悩んだ経験は，多くの諸家にもあつた事と思う，

NIHO says that as result of making cytological e-xaminations of exudates and aspiratec fluids obtai-ned from various malignant growths that are found in the field of Otolaryngology the possibility of fi-nding cancer cells, regardless of the location whe-nce such materil may be derived from, has been conclusively established. When the results of the present method is compared to that of histopathol-ogical procedure it is revealed that the rate of posi-tive findinge. to be higher in medullary cancers with areas of degeneration than wieither scirrh-ts types or cancroids, the method is also usefu inestablishing positive diagnosis of intramucosal-growths. However, it the malignancy is non-epithl elial in character there will be a difficulty in ma-king a decision between it and the cells of inflam, matory process. Experience of this sort has, as yet, been too few in number to afford satisfactory results fut, in future, there seems to be a promise whereby this decision may be faciltated.