Accuracy of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in the Evaluation of Peripheral Lymphadenopathy
MOHAMMED GOLAM MOSTAFA, M.B. B.S., M. Phil.*, SUETRONG CHIEMCHANYA,M.D.**, SONGSEE SRIVANNABOON,M.D.**, PRAWAT NITIYANANT,M.D.**
Affiliation : * Department of Pathology, IDCH, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Presently in the Department of Pathology, Ramathibodi Hospital Under WHO fellowship program. ** Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
Abstract We conducted an audit of the lymph node aspirates received from January 1996 to December 1996 of 541 patients sent to the Cytology Division, Department of Pathology, Rama- thibodi Hospital by their clinicians. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the pattern of diseases that commonly present with peripheral lymphadenopathy and to evaluate the accuracy of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) in the diagnosis of lymph node diseases. An excisional biopsy sample of lymph node was available in 233 (43%) cases for comparison to the histopathology. The predominant lesion was benign which included necrotizing granulo- matous lymphadenitis (NGL), reactive changes (RC) and suppurative lymphadenitis (SL). The predominant malignant lesion was metastatic squamous cell carcinoma. The accuracy for NGL, SL and RC were 69 per cent, 75 per cent and 95 per cent, respectively. The accuracy for metastatic disease was 97 per cent. The specificity and sensitivity of FNAC were 99 per cent and 94 per cent, respectively. An excisional biopsy should be done in case of doubt to clarify the pattern of RC.
Keywords :
