However, any tentative diagnosis made using cytology must be confirmed by histological analysis.
This means the sample must be sent to a laboratory and examined by a certified veterinary histologist.
Results usually arrive within one to two days of examination..
This technique is good for detecting the presence of skin parasites, bacteria, yeasts, fungi, inflammatory cells, or abnormal skin cells.
The skin may bleed a little after being scraped, but the wound is minor (no more than a scratch) and usually does not cause any discomfort..
See Table 3 for a list of cytologic characteristics.
Histiocytomas (Figure 8) are only identified in dogs and commonly diagnosed in dogs less than 4 years of age. 1 The neoplastic cell is a Langerhans cell or epidermal dendritic cell 9 and often resolves on its own.
If the cytology is non-diagnostic or not definitive, the next diagnostic step is histology.
Histology is the microscopic examination of a sample (small piece) of tissue that has been collected surgically.
Histology not only focuses on the individual cells, but on how they are structurally related to one another (the tissue architecture).
