investigation of diagnostic accuracy of impression cytology in conjunctival lesions in comparison with the results of pathology

Background & objective: the conjunctival lesions have a wide range of histological manifestations that are difficult to distinguish clinically. the gold standard for diagnosing these lesions is the pathological examination, a costly and invasive procedure that may also adversely affect patients. therefore, clinical researchers seek less invasive, inexpensive, and easier methods to detect conjunctival lesions. this study aims to compare the accuracy of impression cytology with pathology in patients referred to farshchian hospital in iran.methods: in this descriptive/cross-sectional study, 64 patients with conjunctival lesions were selected from patients referred to farshchian hospital in hamedan in 2021. a cytology specimen was obtained from the patients and sent to the laboratory. the diagnostic accuracy of this method was compared with pathological results (gold standard). data were analyzed by spss 16 software.results: the mean age of patients was 54.47 ±16.94 years; 70.3% were male, and 29.7% were female. in cytology and pathology examination, 28.1% of the specimens were dysplasia, and 71.9% were non-dysplasia. the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of cytology impression compared to pathology methods were 91.30%, 77.78%, 91.30%, 77.78%, and 87.5%, respectively. a positive and significant correlation was observed between pathological and cytological diagnosis scores (r=0.825, p-value<0.001).conclusion: in conjunctival lesions, impression cytology is a relatively accurate and sensitive procedure that can distinguish between dysplastic and non-dysplastic conjunctival lesions.