Background: Lymphadenopathy is a common presenting symptom in various diseases.¹ Lymphadenopathy, which is defined as an abnormality in the size or character of lymph-nodes, is caused by the invasion or propagation of either inflammatory cells or neoplastic cells into the node.² Objective: The present study was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology as a diagnostic tool in cases of Malignant Lymphadenopathy. Study design: This prospective study was conducted in the Department of Pathology; Victoria Hospital; Bangalore Medical College Bangalore over a period of 6 months i.e from 1.1.11 to 30.6.11. Material and Methods: No of Fine Needle Aspirations done in this period were 1349. Out of which 74 cases were that of Malignant Lymphadenopathy (involving cervical, axillary, inguinal and generalised group of lymph-nodes). Malignant Lymphadenopathy comprises of both primary and secondary (metastatic) disease. Out of 441 cases of lymphnode fnac, 74 cases were diagnosed as malignant cytologically and clinically. Results: Out of 1349, 74 cases were diagnosed to have Malignant Lymphadenopathy. Of the 74 cases, 5 cases were suspicious of malignancy. The age group involved was between 5-95 yrs. The male to female ratio was 2:1. Among them, there were 9 cases (12.16%) of primary lymphoid malignancy and 60 cases (81.08%) of metastatic malignancy and about 5 cases (6.75%) were suspicious of malignancy. The most common metastatic deposit was of squamous cell carcinoma (58.10%) followed by breast carcinoma (8.10%) and malignant melanoma (4.05%). Conclusion: FNAC remains a useful investigation in diagnosing Malignant Lymphadenopathy with good certainty. It is an economical and convenient alternative to open biopsy.
IJCR is following an instant policy on rejection those received papers with plagiarism rate of more than 20%. So, All of authors and contributors must check their papers before submission to making assurance of following our anti-plagiarism policies.
