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Diagnosed With Interstitial Cystitis. Cystoscopy Shows Unusual Spot In Bladder. Cytology Test Came As Not Malignant. Accurate?
Question: I have been diagnosed with I.C they told I did not have I.C., After a month of infection after infection my doctor did a cystoscopy in her office with a cytology, she said she saw an unusual spot in my bladder not significant to the irritation she saw in the other area of my bladder. My cytology came back as not malignant. but I have heard that these test are not that reliable, I do not have a bladder infection at this time. But still have blood in my urine and painful urination along pelvic pain. Are these cytology test usually accurate?
Brief Answer:
See detailed answer
Detailed Answer:
Hi there
Thank you for sending in your query.
The treatment for Interstitial cystitis (I.C.) is often not straight forward. There are various staged therapies which can be tried depending on the severity of the symptoms.
As regards to the question of cytology in detecting bladder malignancy is concerned, I am afraid that the test is not very sensitive. The pick up rate of bladder malignancy by urine cytology is about 40%. So a negative test does not mean that a cancer has been ruled out.
So what options do you have? Well if your treating physician feels strongly about ruling out malignancy we could do the following:
1) Repeat the cystoscopy and take multiple biopsies of the bladder mucosa from the normal as well as abnormal looking areas. The histopathology could tell us for sure whats going on.
I hope this was helpful
I will be happy to provide answers to any more questions which you may have.
Regards
Dr. Aditya Bhabhe
See detailed answer
Detailed Answer:
Hi there
Thank you for sending in your query.
The treatment for Interstitial cystitis (I.C.) is often not straight forward. There are various staged therapies which can be tried depending on the severity of the symptoms.
As regards to the question of cytology in detecting bladder malignancy is concerned, I am afraid that the test is not very sensitive. The pick up rate of bladder malignancy by urine cytology is about 40%. So a negative test does not mean that a cancer has been ruled out.
So what options do you have? Well if your treating physician feels strongly about ruling out malignancy we could do the following:
1) Repeat the cystoscopy and take multiple biopsies of the bladder mucosa from the normal as well as abnormal looking areas. The histopathology could tell us for sure whats going on.
I hope this was helpful
I will be happy to provide answers to any more questions which you may have.
Regards
Dr. Aditya Bhabhe
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Thank you so much for your answer it was very helpful. What is the average recovery time for having the cystoscopy with multiple biopsies?
Brief Answer:
Short recovery time
Detailed Answer:
Hi again
The biopsy samples obtained are quite small in size. Thus the recovery time and course from this procedure would be similar to an ordinary cystoscopy.
Depending on the preference of the treating physician it could be done as a day care surgery or a 24-36 hour admission in the hospital post-procedure for observation.
Hope this was helpful
Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions.
Dr. Aditya Bhabhe
Short recovery time
Detailed Answer:
Hi again
The biopsy samples obtained are quite small in size. Thus the recovery time and course from this procedure would be similar to an ordinary cystoscopy.
Depending on the preference of the treating physician it could be done as a day care surgery or a 24-36 hour admission in the hospital post-procedure for observation.
Hope this was helpful
Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions.
Dr. Aditya Bhabhe
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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