ROLE OF FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY IN SALIVARY GLAND PATHOLOGY AND ITS HISTOPATHOLOGICAL CORRELATION: A FIVE YEAR DESCRIPTIVE STUDY IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

Background and objectives: FNAC is one of the useful method for evaluating suspicious salivary glands lesions mainly of its, minimum morbidity, rapid turnaround time, high specificity, sensitivity and low cost. Salivary gland neoplasms account for 2-6.5% of all the neoplasms of the head and neck. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is being increasingly used in the diagnosis of salivary lesions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of FNAC in various salivary gland lesions in correlation with their histopathology, which helps in the appropriate therapeutic management. Methods: This study was a descriptive study done in Department of pathology, Stanley medical college, Chennai, India for duration of 5 years from January 2010 to December2014. During the study period 393 cases of FNAC of salivary gland lesions were performed. Formalin fixed (10%), surgically resected specimens were received, they were processed and slides were prepared for histopathological diagnosis. The stained cytological and histopathological slides were studied, analyzed and correlated. Results: The cytomorphological features were studied and analyzed and the following lesions were observed: Non neoplastic (65), In neoplastic benign (157), malignanat (29) and No specific typing(07). In benign following neoplasms were observed: Pleomorphic adenoma (143), Warthin’s tumour (10) and basal cell adenoma (04). In malignant neoplasms following neoplasms were observed: Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (23), Adenoid cystic carcinoma (04) and Acinic cell carcinoma (02). Conclusion: The overall sensitivity, specificity and the diagnostic accuracy for non neoplastic lesions were 100%, 100% and 100% respectively. The overall sensitivity, specificity and the diagnostic accuracy for benign neoplasms were 99.35%, 98.11% and 71.46% respectively. The overall sensitivity, specificity and the diagnostic accuracy for malignant neoplasms were 94.74%, 99.55% and 98.83% respectively. Hence, the appropriate therapeutic management could be planned earlier. This study documents that FNAC of the salivary gland neoplasms is accurate, simple, rapid, inexpensive, well tolerated and harmless for the patient.