Value of exfoliative cytology in differential diagnosis of epithelial hyperplastic lesions of the larynx.

In a comparative random study we examined material from suspicious laryngeal lesions from 85 patients. Material was obtained simultaneously by exfoliative cytology and biopsy. The diagnoses included keratosis, papilloma/papillomatosis, dysplasia/carcinoma in situ and invasive carcinoma. In each case we were able to demonstrate the cytological diagnostic criteria in the respective histological specimens. We illustrate this in the paper with some examples. Due to the excellent correlation between cytology and histology we are convinced that exfoliative laryngeal cytology is very significant in differential diagnosis of epithelial hyperplastic lesions.