Cytomorphological profile of lymphadenopathy from a tertiary care hospital in kashmir and correlation with histopathology; a study of 740 cases

Background: Lymph nodes are among the commonly aspirated organs for diagnostic purposes. With the simple procedure of FNAC, most of the inflammatory, reactive and neoplastic conditions can be diagnosed without biopsy and biopsies are usually done in inconclusive cases or sometimes in the case of malignancies in the lymph node. Materials and Methods: All patients diagnosed with superficial lymphadenopathy were included in the study. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) was performed and diagnosis made on cytomorphological pattern. The diagnosis was compared with the histopathological diagnosis whereever available. Results: This study included total of 740 cases with age range from 15 months to 85 years. About 78.3% were diagnosis as benign and 21.6% as malignant. Reactive lymphadenopathy was the most frequent diagnosis making up 61.4% of the cases. Tubercular lymphadenopathy was seen in 8.5% of cases with a female preponderance. Malignant lymphadenopathy was seen in 21.6% cases with metastatic tumors (68.7%) being more common than the primary lymphomas (30%). Histopathological correlation was done in 157 cases. Conclusion: FNAC is a simple, safe, inexpensive and quick diagnostic procedure. Reactive lymph node is common cause of lymphadenopathy followed by malignant cause and Tuberculosis.