Szyfelbein accepted for publication in 1994 on the significance of endothelium in the fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The authors studied the presence or otherwise of endothelial cells in 35 cases of HCC compared with benign hepatic processes, cholangiocarcinomas, and metastatic tumors. They described two patterns of endothelial cells in HCC, the ''peripheral'' and the ''transgressing'' patterns, and stressed their importance in diagnosing HCC. They also implied that the significance of endothelial cells has not been emphasised enough in the literature.
In February 1991, we published our article on FNA in HCC, describing the cytologic and histologic features of 50 cases. We verified the cytologic findings with the histologic features seen in cell blocks prepared from the same aspirate. We pointed out the importance of the sinusoidal stroma and described for the first time a central-sinusoidal pattern and a peripheral-sinusoidal pattern in FNAs of HCC. Our series was one of the largest in the literature on FNA of HCC before 1994. Pitman and Szyfelbein published their article more than 4 years after ours was in print. The similarity between their description of the endothelium and ours was stark. Yet, they made no reference to our work.