Nasal Cytology: A Easy Diagnostic Tool in Precision Medicine for Inflammation in Epithelial Barrier Damage in the Nose. A Perspective Mini Review (original) (raw)

Nasal cytology: practical aspects and clinical relevance

Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2016

Nasal cytology is a simple and safe diagnostic procedure that allows to assess the normal and pathological aspects of the nasal mucosa, by identifying and counting the cell types and their morphology. It can be easily performed by a nasal scraping followed by May-Grunwald-Giemsa staining and optical microscopy reading. This procedure allows to identify the normal cells (ciliated and mucinous), the inflammatory cells (lymphocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, mast cells), and bacteria or fungal ifae/spores. Apart from the normal cell population, some specific cytological patterns can be of help in discriminating among various diseases. Viral infections, allergic rhinitis, vasomotor rhinitis and overlapping forms can be easily identified. According to the predominant cell type, various entities can be defined (named as NARES, NARESMA, NARMA). This implies a more detailed knowledge and assessment of the disease, that can integrate the standard diagnostic procedures. Nasal cytology also re...

Cytology in the diagnosis of rhinosinusitis

Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, 2007

Nasal cytology is a diagnostic tool currently used in rhinology, with the aim of assessing cell changes in the nasal epithelium exposed to irritant or inflammatory agents. Its rationale is based on the knowledge that nasal mucosa of healthy individuals is constituted by four cytotypes (ciliata, mucipara, striata, and basalis) and does not show other cells except, rarely, neutrophils and, very rarely, bacteria. In this view, the detection of a given cell type different from these is a sign of possible pathology. The advantage and the diffusion of nasal cytology were increased by a number of factors such as the easiness of performance, the non‐invasiveness allowing repetition (which is often needed in the efficacy monitoring of medical or surgical treatment of nasal diseases), and the low cost. This makes nasal cytology particularly feasible for application in children. The cytological feature characterizing infectious inflammation is the presence of abundant bacteria, which may be fo...