The value of cytologic brushing with the aid of fiberoptic colonoscopy in the diagnosis of carcinoma of colon

Preoperative cytologic brushing and biopsy under direct Vision withfiberoptic colonoscopy(FC)and postoperative histopathologic examination wereperformed in 147 patients who were suspected of suffering from carcinoma of co-lon.In FC cytologic brushing,128 cases were positive for malignancy(87.1percent),18 false-negative(12.2 percent)and only one false-positive(0.7 percent).In the 146 FC biopsy specimens,124 were positive for malignancy(84 4 percent)and 22 false-negative and no false-positive.Combination of FC cytologic brushingwith FC biopsy could raise the diagnostic rate of colonic carcinoma to 95.2% anddecrease false-negative and false-positive because the two methods may replenisheach other in sampling and observation.Cytologic brushing is most valuable tothe early diagnosis of colonic carcinoma.When colonic stricture and obstructionprevent the colonoscope from reaching the lesion and FC biopsy cannot bedone,FC cytologic brushing is an effective method for diagnosis.The positiverate and false-negative rate of the cytologic brushing did not correlate to grosstyping,histopathologic typing and Dukes staging(P>0.05).The factorsinfluencing the correct diagnosis of colonic carcinoma by FC cytologic brushingare discussed in this paper.