Significance of Foamy Histiocytes in Cervical Smears from Postmenopausal Women

Objective: To determine the significance of the presence of foamy histiocytes (FH) in postmenopausal cervicovaginal smears for the detection of endometrial carcinomas (EC). Study Design: Endometrial sampling was performed over 6 months in 53 of 102 cases that presented with postmenopausal FH, benign endometrial cells (BEC), FH with BEC (FH + BEC), and atypical endometrial cells (AEC), resulting in a total of 41,150 cervicovaginal smears. The control group consisted of 58 cases with a cytologic diagnosis of a normal smear (NS). Results: There were 0 (0%), 1 (4.54%), 2 (13.33%), 2 (33.33%), and 5 (50.00%) cases of EC diagnosed on histopathologic evaluation in patients with NS (n = 58), BEC (n = 22), FH (n = 15), FH + BEC (n = 6), and AEC (n = 10), respectively. The sensitivities and specificities of the cytologic diagnoses of FH, FH + BEC, and AEC for the detection of EC were 81.7 and 100%, 93.6 and 100%, and 92.1 and 100%, respectively. Conclusion: The cytologic diagnoses of FH and FH + BEC had reasonably high sensitivities and specificities for the diagnosis of EC by cervicovaginal smear. Additional studies are needed.