Abstract
Purpose:
Purpose: To compare three methods of diagnosis of suspected vitreoretinal lymphoma: cytology, IgH gene rearrangement, and IL-10/IL-6 ratio.<br /> .
Methods:
Methods: Diluted vitreous fluid obtained in diagnostic vitrectomy from patients with suspected vitreoretinal lymphoma were delivered immediately after the surgery to the cytopathology laboratory; to the hematology laboratory for PCR studies, and to the cancer-markers laboratory for ELISA test for IL-10/IL-6 ratio.<br /> .
Results:
Results: Forty-seven specimens were evaluated using the three methods: 21 of them (44.7%) were positive for lymphoma in cytology examination, 13 (27.6%) were positive in Ig-H gene rearrangement evaluation, and 25 (53.2%) were positive by IL-10/IL-6 ratio that was higher than 1.0. Nine of 21 specimens (42.8%) with positive cytology were positive also for Ig-H gene rearrangement and 18 of the 21 (85.7%) were positive also for IL-10/IL-6 ratio. Nine specimens were positive for lymphoma via all three methods. Seven specimens in which the IL-10/IL-6 ratio was positive for lymphoma were negative in cytology, 4 of them developed CNS lymphoma, and 3 that were positive for Ig-H gene rearrangement were negative in cytology.
Conclusions:
Conclusions: In our series, the examination of the IL-10/IL-6 ratio was much more sensitive and much more comparable to cytology than examination for Ig-H gene rearrangement which showed low sensitivity.