Fine-needle aspiration cytology and immunocytochemistry of Hodgkin's disease, suppurative type.

We describe 3 cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD) of unusual suppurative type, which were diagnosed on fine-needle aspirates. The smears were dominated by neutrophils, macrophages, and cellular debris. Only a few large, atypical cells of Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg type were observed. The differential diagnoses of such smears include infectious mononucleosis, tuberculosis, metastatic lymph node involvement, non-Hodgkin's large-cell anaplastic Ki-1-positive lymphomas, T-cell-rich B-cell lymphomas, and peripheral T-cell lymphomas of mixed type. Immunocytochemistry identified the large atypical cells as CD 30 (BerH2)-positive and negative for CD 45 (LCA) in cytospin material from 2 patients, which allowed a conclusive diagnosis of HD.