Touch Imprint Cytology – Can it serve as an alternate to Frozen Section, in Intraoperative assessment of cervical metastasis in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma?

Publication date: Available online 14 January 2019

Source: Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Author(s): Anchal Agarwal, Nitin Bhola, Rajanikanth Kambala, Rajiv M. Borle

Abstract

AIM

To assess the diagnostic accuracy of touch imprint cytology (TIC) as compared to frozen section analysis(FS) as an Intraoperative diagnostic tool to assess nodal metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

38 patients undergoing neck dissection for OSCC were assessed intraoperatively, wherein a total of 248 nodes were sectioned and subjected to TIC and subsequently FS and finally sent for the gold standard histopathological examination. The sensitivities, specificities, positive and negative predictive values of TIC and FS for the detection of metastasis in the cervical nodes were determined with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

RESULTS

TIC had a sensitivity of 62.86%, specificity of 96.24%, PPV of 73.33%, NPV of 94.04%, Accuracy of 91.53% when compared to histopathological results. The sensitivity of FS was 60%, specificity was 98.12%, PPV 84%%, NPV 93.72% and accuracy was 92.74% compared to HPE. These results of TIC was comparable to FS.

CONCLUSION

TIC is a straightforward, quick and reliable technique. It has a definitive role in being used as an adjunct to FS to increase intraoperative diagnostic accuracy. It can be used as an useful technique in centers that do not have frozen section availability.

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