Mehdi G, Maheshwari V, Gaur S, Afroz N, Sharma R

This study was conducted to determine the usefulness of cytology in diagnosis of vesicobullous skin lesions. Forty clinically diagnosed cases were studied by Tzanck smears, imprint smears and fine needle aspiration. Herpes simplex was the commonest (30%) lesion encountered followed by Herpes / Varicella zoster (25%) , pemphigus vulgaris (25%) and molluscum contagiosum (20%) . Clinical diagnosis was confirmed by cytology in 92.5% cases. Histopathology was available in only 14 of the 40 cases, all of which showed a positive cyto-histological correlation. The material was cytologically inadequatein 3 cases (7.5%). The observed cytomorphologic features of various vesicobullous lesions were highly distinctive, thus making cytology a fairly sensitive "patient compliant" technique for the rapid diagnosis of vesicobullous lesions.

Key words : cytology, vesicobullous lesions