Fine needle aspiration cytology of head and neck lesions and its correlation with histopathology

Abstract

Background: Fine needle aspiration cytology is a minimally invasive technique used in the initial diagnosis of different types of lesions located in head and neck region commonly originating from cervical lymph node, thyroid gland, salivary glands and soft tissues. The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and speci city of FNAC in various head and neck lesions in correlation with their histopathological examination. Materials and methods: A hospital based prospective study was conducted among 209 patients with palpable head and neck region swellings in the Department of Pathology, Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital and the Department of Pathology, Nepal Medical College from August 2014 to July 2015. FNAC were done from palpable masses of head and neck regions. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS 17. Result: There were 209 FNAC cases enrolled, out of which lymph node lesions (n=128) were the most common lesions followed by thyroid (n=40), other soft tissues (n=27) and salivary gland (n=14). Reactive lymph nodes, colloid goiter, epidermoid cyst and sialadenosis were the predominant diagnosis of lymph nodes, thyroid gland, soft tissues and salivary gland respectively. Highest accuracy, sensitivity and speci city were observed in thyroid gland, salivary gland and soft tissues. However, four false negative results for malignancy were reported in lymph node lesions. Conclusion: Head and neck region swellings are the commonly encountered conditions. FNAC being highly accurate, sensitive and speci c makes it useful and reliable procedure for screening and diagnosis of palpable masses in head and neck region.

A Retrospective study of 130 cases in all age group presented with palpable head and neck swelling

“…In present study the most common lesion in skin and subcutaneous tissue is lipoma which is similar to the findings in other studies [13,15,18]. In Pathak R et al, And Sudershan Kapoor et al studies the common diagnosis was epidermal cyst, while in Deval N. Patelet alstudy the benign cystic lesion was the commonest finding [12,20,19].…”

“…These two prerequisites will always remain a sine qua non,no matter how sophisticated are the supplementary techniques [6]. In our study the common age group was 21-30 (<50) years which comprised of 31 patients which is similar to the Pathak R et alstudy in which the predominant age group was <50 years and number of patients was 127 out of 209 patients [12] and the Himanshu Shekhar et al [1study in which the preponderance were seen in the 31 to 45 (<50) years with 62 patients out of 200 patients [13].…”

Utility of fine needle aspiration cytology in head and neck lesions and its correlation with histopathology- a study in tertiary care hospital

“…Similar to the other studies, the maximum incidence of thyroid lesions in this study was colloid goiter (49.7%) followed by PCT (7.7%). 11,19,20 Singal et al also reported colloid goiter as a dominant disorder in the thyroid region similar to this study. 17 In the present study, among the total 155 cases of thyroid, only four cases were available for HPE and all the cases were consistent with the cyto-diagnosis which is similar to the study done by Pathak et al 11 However, in the study conducted by Khetrapal et al, 9 14 out of 49 cases were available for HPE and only 12 cases were consistent with the cytological findings and the remaining two cases were inconsistent in which one case reported as colloid goiter on cytology was later on reported as follicular carcinoma and another case as poorly differentiated carcinoma on histology.…”

“…8 In contrast to our studies where lymph node swelling is the second common cause of head and neck swelling, the majority of the studies carried out in other parts of Nepal and India show the highest frequency of aspirates from lymph nodes. 3,[9][10][11][12] In the present study, the overall head, and neck swellings were more commonly encountered in females with male to female ratio being 1:2.2 which is similar to other studies. 9,[13][14][15] The peak incidence of head and neck lesions in the majority of the studies was in the second decade, unlike the present study where the lesions were seen in the fourth decade (18.4%).…”

“…10,13,17,20,21 In the present study female predominance was seen in lymph nodes in contrast to the other studies where there was male predominance. 9,11 In contrast to our study where TB lymphadenitis was the second most common cause (14%), few other studies showed TB lymphadenitis as the most frequent cause of lymph node swelling. 9,19,[22][23][24] It is one of the important causes of superficial lymphadenopathy in countries like India and Nepal.…”