Study of diagnostic importance of fine needle aspiration cytology in various body lesions in a predominantly rural mountainous region of Jammu and Kashmir, G.M.C Doda, India

Background: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is a procedure of choice as the first line of investigation in diagnosing non-neoplastic and neoplastic swellings of different areas as it has been found to be highly accurate and very useful, cost effective, offer early diagnosis after presentation and treatment. In this present study in Department of pathology, data was collected and scrutinized. Cytology of various sites including breast, head and neck, salivary glands, thyroid, lymph nodes, etc. was done.Methods: FNAC is performed with the help of 21-22-gauge needle attached with 20 ml syringe by taking all aseptic precautions. Total of 70 cases were collected over a period of 4 months from April 2019 to July 2019.Results: Out of total 70 samples maximum number of cases were found in 21-30 years of age (16 cases); Males were 34(49%) and females were 36(51%) in number. 38 cases (54%) were non-neoplastic ,23 cases (33%) were neoplastic and in 9 cases (13%) no opinion was made. This study included 70 cytologically diagnosed cases. Out of which 38 cases (54%) were non-neoplastic, 23 cases (33%) neoplastic and in 9 cases (13%) no possible opinion could be made due to a number of factors like: Material not corresponding of representative area, small size of lesion, wrong technique, cystic areas, hemorrhage and necrosis and small foci of neoplastic lesion.Conclusions: Even though a number of limitations, FNAC has high accuracy in diagnosing benign and malignant lesions of various sites and thus reduces the period between presentation of tumours and their diagnosis which results in early management