Spectrum of lymphadenopathy on fine needle aspiration cytology-A 3 year retrospective study in a tertiary care centre

Introduction: Lymphadenopathy is seen commonly in patients attending the medical outpatient departments. FNAC is an easy and rapid diagnostic test. FNAC gives early direction to treatment protocol to be followed. Aim: To study the different cytological spectrum associated with various lymphadenopathy and different lesions with respect to age and sex. Materials and Methods: In our study, all cases of peripheral lymphadenopathies who had come to the cytology department for FNAC over a period of 3 years from 1st July 2015 to 1st July 2018 were included. It was a retrospective study. Results: During a course of threeyears a total of 100 cases were received and were studied. Of these 6 cases were inconclusive due to unsatisfactory and haemorragicsmears; 83 cases were benign and 11 cases were neoplastic. The ages of patients were from 6 months to 65 years. Males were 54 and females were 46 in number. Reactive (27 cases), granulomatous (30 cases), Tuberculosis (4 cases), suppurative (14 cases), necrotic (5 cases), lymph node with filariasis (2 cases), metastasis (8 cases), lymphomas (3 cases). Conclusion: FNAC is an easy, quick and good test to offer rapid diagnosis for lymphadenopathies and guide towards appropriate and timely treatment without the need of biopsy.