Diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology in a breast lump using histopathology as gold standard

Aim: to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology in a breast lump using histopathology as gold standard. study design: cross sectional study. settings: department of general surgery,bahawal victoria hospital,bahawalpur. duration: from 10-03-2011 to 09-09-2011. results: total 200 patients with breast lump were included in this study. mean age of the patients was 35.45±8.57. all the patients were divided into different age groups. ninety (45%) patients were in age group 20-30 years,47 (23.5%) in age group 31-40 years,32(16%) were in age group 41-50 years,29(14.5%) were in age group 51-60 years and 2(1%) patients were in age group >60 years. gender distribution was done and found 7(3.5%) male patients and 193(96.5%) female patients. histopathological diagnosis of breast lesions show 53(26.5%) malignant and 147(73.5%) benign cases. table 3 shows result of fnac taking histopathology as gold standard. true positive (tp) were recorded as 49(24.5%),16(8%) false positive (fp),8(4%) false negative (fn) and 127(63.5%) as true negative (tn),sensitivity was 85.96%,specificity was 88.81%,positive predictive value (ppv) was 75.38% and negative predictive value (npv) was 94.07%. conclusion: the evaluation of diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology in a breast lump using histopathology as gold standard shows a greater sensitivity and specificity,less invasive and cost effective procedure for the diagnosis.