Blastomyces dermatitidis in cytologic preparations.

Abstract

The recognition of Blastomyces dermatitidis in Papanicolau preparations of sputum was applied to the diagnosis of pulmonary blastomycosis in 15 of 29 cases, and the diagnosis was confirmed in 11 instances. A presumptive etiologic diagnosis was obtained as promptly as the direct microscopic examination of wet preparation. This method was convenient because of the ready availability of service from the cytology laboratory as compared with that of the mycology laboratory service, and because of the frequency with which the need for the differentiation of pulmonary neoplasm from blastomycosis occurred. It was particularly valuable in patients for whom thoracotomy was being considered for pulmonary lesions of unknown etiology. If used with discretion and confirmed by culture, the examination of cytologic preparations of sputum promises to be the most frequent means of presumptive etiologic diagnosis in pulmonary blastomycosis.