Some patients with cystic fibrosis may develop nasal polyps that can be distinguished from the common inflammatory nasal polyp on histologic examination. This may be important in children since inflammatory polyps are relatively uncommon in pediatric patients. The authors are from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Parameters:
(1) thickness of the basement membrane
(2) submucosal hyalinization
(3) stromal eosinophils
(4) predominant type of mucin
Histologic Feature
Cystic Fibrosis
Inflammatory Polyp
basement membrane
very thin (barely visible)
thickened
submucosal hyalinization
absent
present
stromal eosinophils
few
many
mucin in mucous glands and cysts
acid
neutral
Alcian blue + PAS stain
blue to purple-blue
red to purple red
where:
• Goblet cells in both types of polyps contain acid mucin so stain blue to purple-blue on a combined Alcian blue and PAS (periodic acid Schiff) stain.
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