Patterns of respiratory tract lesions - A cytohistopathological analysis

Background: Respiratory tract lesions are commonest for which patients attend the chest clinics. The lesions may be inflammatory or neoplastic. Materials and methods: 594 patients attending to chest clinics and admitted in Government General and Chest Hospital Hyderabad during the period of 2 years from September 2006 to August 2008 were included. All of the patients with clear cut evidence of tuberculosis and pneumonia were excluded from the study. Results: Majority of patients were in the age group of 41-60 years. Youngest patient was 20 years. Males were 443 (74.57%) and females were 151 (25.43%). Commonest presentation was cough with expectoration 567 (94.45%) followed by fever 101 (17.0%), chest pain 84 (14.14%), hemoptysis 57 (9.59%), Shortness of breath 51 (8.58%) and weight loss 34 (5.72%). Conclusion: In the present study even though malignancy was proved with positive cytologic examination by identifying the malignant nature of the cells, the typing of cell was difficult in some cases, but was excellent with squamous cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma.