Pregnancies and their related problems are involved in a remarkable percent of abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB). Thus, for finding the etiology of AUB, it is very important to be sure about the presence or absence of pregnancy. In aborted cases, the absence of placental villi, as a definite criterion of pregnancy, mistaken the diagnosis of pregnancy. In such cases, the presence of intermediate trophoblastic cells (ITC) could be used as another valuable criterion for diagnosis of pregnancy. Accordingly, in the present study both morphological characteristics of ITCs and correlation of their presence with other diagnostic values of pregnancy are examined. The specimens include 100 uterine curetting tissues which were referred to pathology lab for diagnosing the etiology of AUB. The specimens are sectioned, stained with H&E or PAS and studied with light microscopy.
The results showed that ITCs are large cells having irregular, hyperchromatic and indented nuclei. These cells were present in all cases of pregnancies (61 cases), but were not found in nonpregnants. It is concluded that the presence of ITCs is a definite criterion for diagnosis of pregnancy. We also showed that the morphological characteristics of nuclei of these cells is a valuable tool for their diagnosis.