Lymph node cytology in small animal practice: 2. Examination schedule, cytological pictures of different lymphadenopathies, and diagnosis.

摘要

The second part of this overview includes the examination technique, morphology of different cells and typical findings of different lymphadenopathies. First, the slides were examined in low magnification to evaluate their quality and to identify the possible localized processes and afterwards with higher magnification and occasionally with oil-immersion lense. With regards to the sample quality, it has to be determined whether an adequate number of intact well stained cells are present and if there is evidence that cytology does not represent the target organ. With some training, veterinary practitioners can classify lymphadenopathies due to the low number of cell types in cytological lymph node preparations. This includes hyperplasia (increased portion of plasma cells and their precursors), lymphadenitis (increased percentage of neutrophils, eosinophils and/or macrophages), malignant lymphoma (monomorphic cellular picture, in particular blasts) or metastatic neoplasia (non-lymph node cells). This delivers in part some of the definitive diagnosis or at least evidence for the underlying disease.