F. Fulciniti et al., ACCURACY OF FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION BIOPSY IN HEAD AND NECK TUMORS, Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery, 55(10), 1997, pp. 1094-1097
Purpose: Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is frequently used in th
e diagnosis of lesions occurring in the head and neck region. This stu
dy evaluated the correlation between the findings on FNAB and the hist
ological findings observed after surgery. Materials and Methods: A rev
iew of 218 patients who underwent FNAB of a head or neck tumor was per
formed. Cytological reports were classified into the following diagnos
tic categories: negative or positive for malignant cells and unsatisfa
ctory. False-positive, false-negative, true-positive (sensitivity), an
d true-negative (specificity) rates were calculated. Results: Twelve s
pecimens did not allow an adequate diagnosis (5.5%), Among benign tumo
rs, 96.2% of the cases were correctly diagnosed, and 3.8% were nondiag
nostic specimens, Among malignant tumors, 86.4% of cases were correctl
y identified. There were two (3.4%) false-negatives and six (10.2%) no
ndiagnostic specimens, with a total false-negative rate of 13.6%. Conc
lusions: Sampling errors present a minor problem with FNAB, Most nondi
agnostic or incorrect specimens were caused by nonhomogenous lesions,
with poor placement of the needle and an insufficient amount of aspira
ted material, FNAB is a useful modality for the diagnosis of head and
neck masses.