A comparative study of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and histopathology in salivary gland lesions
Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of FNAC in the diagnosis of salivary gland lesions and to correlate with histopathological findings.
Methods: This was a cross- sectional study of salivary gland lesions. FNAC and histological correlation was done in 58 cases. The most frequently involved sites were the parotid and the submandibular glands (46.55% each), followed by minor salivary glands (5.16%) and the sublingual gland (1.72%).
Result: Cytologically, the lesions were categorized into benign cystic lesions (13.79%), inflammatory lesions (13.79%), benign neoplasms (50%), malignant neoplasms (15.52%) and inconclusive cytological findings (6.9%).
Histologically, 47 benign (81.05%) and 11 malignant (18.95%) lesions were diagnosed. Of the benign lesions, inflammatory lesions accounted for 22.40%, benign non-neoplastc lesions- 3.45% and benign neoplasms- 55.20%. The most commonly diagnosed lesion was pleomorphic adenoma (41.4%).
The overall sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of FNA cytology was 81.82%, 100% and 96.5%, respectively. There were 2 false- negative cases and no false - positive cases in this study.
Conclusion: FNAC has a high diagnostic efficacy in diagnosing salivary gland lesions, although limitations were encountered in predicting specific type of lesions in malignancies and cystic lesions. Therefore, this technique is a safe, quick and reliable technique in early diagnosis and treatment of salivary gland lesions.