ABSTRACT

Objectives: This is a case control study aimed at detecting cytological changes in diagnosed asthmatic patients, using sputum samples collected and stained by cytological methods.

Materials and methods: The study was carried out on 80 individuals, of whom 30 were normal as controls, and 50 were asthmatic patients. Along with clinical data cytological, patterns in asthmatic patients were mapped using two stains, Papaniclauo (PAP) and May-Grunwald Giemsa (MGG).

Results: Inflammatory response changes were reported in 18 cases (36%) compared with 4 controls (13%). Inflammatory responses with metaplasia and metaplasia changes without inflammatory response were seen within these 18 cases, with asthmatic patients with 27 cases (54%) and 2 cases (4%) respectively, (p < 0. 01). Inflammatory response, both with and without metaplasia, was reported in 32 (64%;p <0.05) asthmatic patients suffering from environmental allergens with respiratory co-infections. Inflammation with metaplasia was also found to be significantly higher (p < 0.05) in females. The PAP stain gave excellent and clear results for screening of sputum.

Conclusion: Sputum cytology is a valuable tool. The PAP stain is suggested to be used as a cytological stain over the MGG stain. Further research is needed to confirm our findings and then to determine whether the assessment of cytological patterns in sputum of asthmatic patients is useful or not for the routine monitoring of asthmatic patients.

Keywords: Metaplasia, Allergy, inflammatory airways, Eosinophilic asthma, environmental allergens.