Lekshmi V.1 , Mini B.2
BACKGROUND Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is widely used as a single, safe and minimally invasive diagnostic modality in salivary gland lesions. However, the role of FNAC in the diagnosis of salivary gland lesions is still controversial because, correct tumour typing and the diagnostic accuracy has been dependent on the quality and yield of the aspirate, as well as the expertise of cytopathologist. We wanted to analyse the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of FNAC in the preoperative diagnosis of malignant salivary gland lesions by comparing them with those of histopathologic sections. METHODS This is a diagnostic test evaluation conducted on 11 samples obtained from patients who had undergone pre-operative FNAC and diagnosed as malignant lesions followed by surgical procedure and histologic examination in Government Medical College, Thrissur, during the time period 1/1/2013 to 30/6/2015. RESULTS Among the malignant neoplasms diagnosed on cytopathology, out of 4 cases of acinic cell carcinoma only 3 were confirmed by histopathology and one was found to be chronic sialadenosis. So, this case was a false positive. The two cases of adenoid cystic carcinoma and two out of three mucoepidermoid carcinoma were confirmed by histopathology. Two cases of poorly differentiated carcinoma and one out of 3 cases of mucoepidermoid carcinoma were salivary duct carcinomas. CONCLUSIONS FNAC is a safe, cost effective, accurate, sensitive, and specific technique in the initial evaluation of head and neck lesions. It can be done on an outpatient basis and offers a simple method of diagnosis of neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions of salivary gland.
