Diagnosis of Salivary Gland Lesions By Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology and Its Histopathological Correlation in A Tertiary Care Center of Southern India

Background: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) of the salivary gland is one of the most challenging in the field of cytopathology due to the wide spectrum of lesions. There is significant cytomorphologic diversity and overlap between many benign and malignant salivary gland tumours. Though FNAC is quite an effective tool for the diagnosis of salivary gland lesions, it has always been under scrutiny and histopathology continues to be the final method to establish a diagnosis.Methods: A total of 80 patients who presented with clinical diagnosis of salivary gland mass at the Department of Pathology, SMCH, Assam from August 2017 to August 2019 were included in the study. FNAC was performed in all the cases and the cytological findings were correlated with that of the histopathological findings (wherever possible).Results: The median age group of patients was in the range of 30-40 years (30%). 60 patients underwent surgical procedure and hence histopathological correlation could be done in these patients. Among the various diagnosis in FNAC, benign tumours constitute the majority with 36 cases (60%). The most commonly involved benign tumour was pleomorphic adenoma (27 cases). The overall sensitivity, specificity & diagnostic accuracy of FNAC were found to be 87.3%, 93.9% and 93.33% respectively.Conclusions: FNAC is a safe, reliable, time saving, cost-effective, convenient and accurate method and should be considered as one of the pivotal investigations in the evaluation of salivary gland lesions.

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Profile of Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) of Salivary Gland Lesions with Histopathological Correlation in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Maharashtra

Journal of Evidence Based Medicine and Healthcare ◽

10.18410/jebmh/2021/174 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (14) ◽

pp. 893-898

Author(s):

Pradip Ramabhau Butale ◽

Sagar Jagdish Gawai

Keyword(s):

Salivary Gland ◽

Fine Needle Aspiration ◽

Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology ◽

Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma ◽

Needle Aspiration ◽

Aspiration Cytology ◽

Fine Needle ◽

Histopathological Correlation ◽

Neoplastic Lesions ◽

Needle Aspiration Cytology

BACKGROUND Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a method for the diagnosis of superficial lesions like swellings of the salivary glands since many years. The present study was undertaken to identify the patterns of salivary gland lesions (SGL) on FNAC and histopathology specimens and also describe the age and sex distribution of SGL. METHODS A total 319 cases of SGL were studied from June 2009 to July 2019 which included both retrospective and prospective cases. A detailed history was taken, clinical and necessary laboratory investigations were done; and then FNAC of salivary gland was done. Histopathology examination of specimens was done whenever available; FNAC and histopathology slides of retrospective cases were reviewed. Correlation between cytomorphology and histomorphology was done only where available. RESULTS The majority of cases was in the age group of 21 - 40 years (42.98 %) with female predominance (53 %) and commonest gland involved was parotid gland (52.97 %) in both the sexes. 138 (43 %) cases were non-neoplastic lesions and 181 (57 %) were diagnosed as neoplastic lesions. Of the 138 non neoplastic lesions, on cytology and histopathology, sialadenitis constituted 110 (79.71 %) cases; most being chronic sialadenitis (107). Out of 181 neoplastic lesions, 142 (77.78 %) were benign while 39 (22.22 %) cases were malignant. Pleomorphic adenoma was the commonest benign neoplasm (71.27 %) and mucoepidermoid carcinoma (66.69 %) was the commonest malignant neoplasm. Histopathological correlation was available in 37 cases. CONCLUSIONS FNAC is useful as an outdoor diagnostic procedure because of the availability of earlier diagnosis in comparison with the histopathological diagnosis. Histopathology correlation is helpful in cases where diagnosis at FNAC is difficult. KEYWORDS FNAC, Salivary Glands, Histopathology, Specimens, Cytomorphology, Sialadenitis, Pleomorphic Adenoma, Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma

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