Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology: A Reliabe Diagnostic Approach in Supraclavicular Lymph Node Swelling: A Study at Pumhs-W, Nawabshah, Sind, Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted with the aim to approach the diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology in supraclavicular lymph node swelling at outpatient department. Methods: The study is cross-sectional, descriptive conducted at General Surgery department Unit-III, of PUMHSW, Nawabshah, Sind, from 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2020. After the written permission from ethical Review Committee of PUMHS-W, all the patients attending Surgical/Medical outpatient department with supraclavicular lymph node swelling and sent for cytological examination from 1st January 2019-31st December 2020 were entered in SPSS-20, after filling of specially designed proforma. All the variables/demographic details were entered and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Results: Total of 153 cases diagnosed at the Department of Pathology, PUMHS-W, and Nawabshah during the two-year period. The most commonly lesion was TB Lymphadenitis 58(38%),and 43(28%) were cases of Reactive Hyperplasia, while the malignant metastatic lesions were 38(25%) and Lymphoma and NHL were positive in 5(3%) cases. The metastatic lesion were most commonly involve the left side 23(60.5%) and less commonly the bilateral 3(8%) involvement. The common metastatic malignancy found was squamous cell carcinoma 14(37%) followed by adenocarcinoma, undifferentiated carcinoma, small cell carcinoma, papillary thyroid carcinoma, ductal carcinoma breast, hepatocellular carcinoma and seminoma, 10(%), 5(% ),2(%), 2(%), 1(%), 1(%), 1(%) respectively. The most commonly involved age group by mixed lesions were 41-50 years of age, and less common group involved was above 70 years of age. The metastatic malignant lesion were commonly found in 61-70 years of age group and lymphoma and Non Hodgkin Lymphoma were seen up to 60 years of all age groups. Conclusion: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology is a reliable diagnostic tool as it is cheap, less invasive, and timed modality for diagnosing the supraclavicular lymph node inflammation/metastatic and nodular malignancies.