Shahid Jamal, Nasirullah Khan, Ahsan Ahmed Alvi.
Cytopathological appearance of Pindborg Tumor.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;11(5):330-1.

Use of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in the diagnosis of odentogenic tumours has gained little attention. We came across one such case where the cytological appearance was found to be typical calcifying epithelial odentogenic tumour (CEOT) also called Pindborg tumor when finally correlated with histology. No such case is published previously, therefore, its cytological appearance is described along with radiological, histological and clinical behavior.

Case Repot: A 62 years old female presented with a firm to hard swelling in the lower part of mandible at its junction of ramus with body on left side. The swelling was 6 x 4 cm, non-mobile and non-tender. The overlying skin was tense and flattened. Local temperature of the growth was not raised and there was no fluctuation in the swelling. The x-ray of the lesion showed radiopaque and some radiolucent areas. Fine needle aspiration of the swelling was done under local anesthesia after explaining the procedure thoroughly to the patient. Two slides were prepared which were wet fixed in a cytological fixative (mixture of absolute alcohol and acetone in equal amount). The slides were stained with haemotoxylin and eosin stain. On cytological examination of the smears, there was abundant eosinophilic amorphous material with few red blood cells in the background. Following three patterns of cell groups were seen: I. There were small to medium size epithelial type cohesive groups. The cellular groups were compact without any dyshesions and dyspolarity. II. Few multinucleated giant cells with regular small to medium sized nuclei and abundant cytoplasm. III. The third pattern was of isolated cells having mostly epithelial cuboidal type appearance which at places were having plasmacytoid look. The impression of `epithelial tumor, probably dentigerous origin` was conveyed and biopsy was suggested. The biopsy material on histology showed sheets of epithelial cells with eosinophilic homogenous and calcified areas around.

There was slight variation of epithelial cells but no mitoses were seen. Typical circular intracellular degeneration of epithelial tumor tissue as described by Pindborg was also present. On histology a final diagnosis of Pindborg Tumor was made.

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