Forty-seven tissue samples which were difficult to diagnose by light microscopy(LM) were examined by electron microscopy(EM) from 1984 to 1990 in the PLA's General Hospital,aiming at comparing the diagnostic results of CM and EM.The differential diagnosis of non-differentiated small cell tumors was very hard in route pathological-examination, but they all had the charateristics of their own,being helpful for differential diagnosis.However,there was no any detail report for the differential diagnosis of lymphomas by EMin China.We analyzed the results of lymphomas.Of the 47 cases of lymphomas examined by EM,there were 32 cases of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, 2 cases of histiocytic hyperplasia and lymphocytic leukemia each, and 1 case of malignant histiocytic hyperplasia, lymphomatous granuloma and histocytic reactive hyperplasia of bone marrow each.These results show that EM is helpful for the differential diagnosis of small cell tumors.