Abstract :
Background: It has become important to diagnose the pathology of any site in early stage to improve the prognosis of the disease process since there is limited resources in our country. Since FNAC is easy to perform, simple, cost effective procedure requiring minimal setup, we conducted this study to evaluate its diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity in comparison to histopathology.
Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective and prospective study carried out for a duration of 4 years and included total of 483 cases referred to Pathology Department. Biopsy was performed in all cases after FNAC and the findings were correlated.
Results: Of the 483 cases, patients belonged to age group of 10 to 70 years. In case of breast lesions all were females, in lymph node, lung & miscellaneous lesions there was male preponderance while in thyroid female preponderance was observed. The sensitivity & specificity of cytopathology in Breast was 98.87% & 78.26%, in Lung 98.18% & 86.66%, in Lymph node 93.93% & 85.71%, in Thyroid 93.18% & 85.71%, while in Miscellaneous 93.33% & 87.5% respectively.
Conclusion: FNAC can be used safely and can be relied upon in diagnosis of various pathologies even in centres with limited facilities & it can be set up at OPD level also, thus aiding in timely management of the patient. The overall Sensitivity and Specificity of cytopathological examination was good. PPV & NPV were within acceptable range.
Keyword :
Biopsy, Breast, FNAC, Lung, Lymph node, Thyroid, Miscellaneous.