Accuracy of FNA cytology for detection of palpable breast lesions

Background: breast diseases cause noteworthy morbidity and mortality in females. the lesions range from benign to malignant. majority of the lesions are confused clinically with malignancy. aim: to determine the accuracy of fnac as a pre operative diagnostic procedure in palpable breast lesions in comparison with histopathology place and duration of study: during a period of 6 months in the year 2009 fifty cases of palpable breast lumps who presented to pathology department of king edward medical university (kemu) in collaboration with all four surgical units of mayo hospital lahore. methods: study was conducted on fifty female patients who presented with palpable breast lump to pathology department kemu for fnac and their tissue biopsies including core needle,lumpectomy and mastectomy done in surgical units of mayo hospital were included in this cross sectional validational study. results: among 50 cases 30 were benign lesions whereas 20 were malignant. out of 30 benign 21 were fibroadenoma,4 were fibrocystic,1case of benign phyllodes,granulomatous inflammation and atypical hyperplasia each and 2 cases of inflammatory lesions. infiltrating ductal carcinoma was the commonest malignant lesion constituting 18 cases followed by 1 case each of lobular carcinoma and medullary carcinoma. the mean age for malignant lesions was mean ±sd 48±7.91 and for benign lesions was mean ±sd 25.82±7.6. sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value and accuracy were 96%,100%,100%,96% and 100% respectively. conclusion: fna cytology is an accurate and simple preoperautive method for diagnosing palpable breast lesions. © 2016,lahore medical and dental college. all rights reserved.