Fluorescence in situ hybridisation in the cytological diagnosis of pancreatobiliary tumours

To assess the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) and conventional cytology in identifying bile duct stricture malignancies. Brushing samples were collected from 64 patients by means of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, and assessed cytologically and by means of a multiprobe FISH set. The cytological diagnoses were: positive, negative and suspicious, whereas criteria for FISH positivity were: more than five polysomic cells or more than 10 trisomic cells for chromosomes 3 or 7. Forty-eight of the 64 patients showed histological or clinical signs of malignancy. The sensitivity of cytology was high (77%) if suspicious cases were considered positive, but was significantly lower than that of FISH if suspicious cases were considered negative (58% versus 90%; p