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CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol 10, 165-169, Copyright © 1960 by American Cancer Society

Exfoliative Cytology of Cerebrospinal Fluid

¹ The Department of Anatomic Pathology, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and The Frank E. Bunts Educational Institute, Cleveland, Ohio.

The search for neoplastic cells in specimens of cerebrospinal fluid can aid in solving certain baffling clinical problems primarily referable to the central nervous system. Mental confusion, headache, nausea and vomiting, associated with numbness and pain in diverse portions of the body, as well as blindness, tinnitus and vertigo may be prominent clinical symptoms. Certain laboratory findings, especially the simultaneous occurrence of a low cell count and a low glucose content in cerebrospinal fluid, should alert the physician to institute a search for exfoliated tumor cells in the cerebrospinal fluid. The procedure is not difficult but the interpretation requires care. The neoplastic cellular elements, when present, are similar to those from other areas of the body. The simplified wet-film method described is currently of great diagnostic aid in studying cerebrospinal fluid as well as other fluids of the body.