ASSESSMENT OF TESTICULAR CYTOLOGY BY FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION AND THE IMPRINT TECHNIQUE - ARE THEY RELIABLE DIAGNOSTIC MODALITIES

Objective To investigate whether testicular cytology may be considered diagnostic in the evaluation of infertile men. Patients and methods S pecimens of testicular tissue obtained either surgically (imprint smea r) or through fine-needle aspiration (FNA) were used as a source of cy tological smears; 58 testes from 24 men with azoospermia or severe oli gospermia and from five men with advanced prostate cancer were evaluat ed cytologically and compared with the histological diagnosis. Results FNA caused no apparent trauma, The results from FNA smears generally agreed with the histological findings but four patients with no sperma tozoa in the FNA smears were diagnosed histologically as hypospermatog enic and two others judged histologically as having Sertoli-cell-only (SCO) syndrome and spermatogenic arrest had detectable spermatozoa in their FNA smears. There was complete agreement between the results of imprint smears and histological findings in those patients with SCO sy ndrome and spermatogenic arrest, There were no evident differences in sperm counts between hypospermatogenesis and normal spermatogenesis on the imprint slides, but FNA smears detected this difference. Conclusi on FNA of the testis is a relatively non-invasive and reproducible tec hnique for evaluating qualitative and quantitative cytology. However, it is insufficient for diagnosing some testicular pathologies. Imprint smears supplement the histological diagnosis, especially if the histo logical slides are stained unsatisfactorily.