Predictive Value of Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy and Ultrasonography in The Diagnosis of Cervical Lymphadenopathy
Abdulkadir Şahin, Merve Zeynep Koday, Bülent Aktan, Muhammed Sedat Sakat, Korhan KılıçObjective: Cervical lymphadenopathy (LAP) is one of the most common pathologies in adults and children. While ultrasonography (USG) and fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) are the two methods used as diagnostic tests, excisional biopsy is the gold standard method for diagnosis. In this study, we aimed to show the relationship between USG findings and FNAB results with malignancy in patients with LAP. Materials and methods: Patients who visited our clinic with the complaint of cervical LAP between March 2020 and September 2022 and underwent excisional biopsy were included in this retrospective study. The number, distribution, side, size, cortical thickness, conglomeration, and necrosis characteristics of LAP were evaluated on USG. The sensitivity and specificity of the FNAB were calculated in patients in accordance with the histopathological results. Results: Of the patients included in the study, 45 were female and 42 were male. The overall mean age was 32.72 ± 20.02. The sensitivity of the FNAB was 43.5% and the specificity was 90.0%. Advanced age, presence of conglomeration, unilateral LAP, and generalized LAP were found to be statistically significant in terms of malignancy, while cortical thickness, the number and size of LAPs, and necrosis were not statistically significant. Conclusion: FNAB was not found to be a reliable test to rule out malignancy due to low sensitivity for determining malignancy and but was found to be a highly selective test, and the malignancy-suspected result detected the real patients quite successfully. The advanced age, unilateral LAP, generalized distribution, and conglomeration were the parameters supporting malignancy.