Pattern of Exfoliative Cytology of Respiratory and Urinary Tracts Among Sudanese Fuel Station Workers

Abstract

This is a retrospective cohort case control study, which was carried out in Khartoum state in the period from June 2007 to the February 2008. The study aimed to evaluate the cytological changes in the cells of the respiratory and urinary tract. A number of 200 samples were collected, of which 100 samples were collected from different fuel stations workers (cases), and 100 samples were collected from non fuel- stations workers (controls). The samples were processed and stained using Papanicolaou stain and microscopically examined. The cytological atypia was assessed in two specimen types (sputum and urine). Of the 200 sputum specimens, the cytological atypias were detected among8(4%) of the cases and no atypia was detected among the control group, while of the 200 urine specimens cytological atypias were detected among 4(2%) of the cases and no atypia was detected among the controls. This indicated that exposure to benzene is a major risk factor that contributes to induction of cytological atypia in the lung and urinary bladder, and these were found to be statistically significant,(p< 0.01), (p< 0.04), for sputum and urine respectively. Furthermore, inflammatory cells were detected in sputum smears in 15 of the cases and 4 of the controls, while in urine specimens the inflammatory cells were detected in 21 of the cases and 5 of the controls. This indicates that there is statistically significant association between exposure to benzene and developing of inflammatory infiltrate of the bladder, and lung, and these were found to be statistically significant for sputum and urine (p< 0.03), and (p< 0.003), correspondingly.