THE CERVICAL LYMPHADENOPATHY DIAGNOSIS BY EXCISION BIOPSY AND FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY (FNAC) WITH COMPARISON

Objective: To determine the fine needle aspiration cytology accuracy when compared with biopsy in the diagnosis of cervical lymphadenopathy. Study Design: A prospective study. Place and Duration: Between February 2017 to February 2018 for one year duration in the Surgery department Unit II of Services Hospital, Lahore. Methodology: Patients after informed consent with enlarged cervical lymph nodes were selected for the study. FNAC and excisional biopsy were performed in all patients. Both samples were sent separately to the histopathology and cytology departments of laboratory. Both laboratory units work separately and none have received information about each other's reports. Results: Totally 15 patients (30%) were male and 35 (70%) were female. The mean age was 28.7 years. Cytological report was finalized in 48 (96%) patients and only 2 (4%) patients were incapacitated due to lack of material. There were 48 reports of cytology, 11 patients with benign diagnosis as malignant cytology and 37 patients with benign histopathology. Therefore, FNAC had a sensitivity of 96.08%, specificity of 100% and 92.99% accuracy. In 35 patients (68%) the most common disease was Tuberculosis, followed by in 7 patients (12%) with metastatic carcinoma. Conclusion: FNAC is a very simple but accurate technique for the cervical lymphadenopathy diagnosis. Key Words: FNAC, Cervical lymphadenopathy, Tuberculosis, Biopsy