The role of fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of breast masses

Abstract AR

Objectives: To study the accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in the diagnosis of breast masses in Iraq, Methods FNAC as well as excisional biopsy in order to compare the results.

Results: There were 121 females and 6 males, with the total of 79 benign lesions (62.2%) and 48 malignant lesions (37.8%).

Of the 80 patients who had benign results on FNAC, 3 were false negative.

All 41 patients who had malignancy on FNAC had malignant histopathology.

Of the 6 who had suspicious FNAC results, 2 were benign (2 false positive cases) and 4 were malignant on histopathology.

The sensitivity of the test was 93.7% and the specificity was 97.5%.

The accuracy rate was 96%.

There were no serious complications to the procedure.

The most common benign lesion was fibroadenoma (47%).

The most common malignant lesion was infiltrative ductal carcinoma (83.3%).

Conclusion: FNAC of breast masses was found to be a safe and inexpensive procedure as well as a sensitive and specific diagnostic tool.