FNAC: A Simple & Cost-Effective Diagnostic Tool for Benign & Malignant Pathologies Associated with Cervical Lymphadenopathy

Introduction: Cervical lymphadenopathy is very common as the presenting complaint in our outpatient departments. Its etiology may either be benign or malignant. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a comparatively cheap, easy to perform minimally invasive test. It has become the go to test to determine the cause of lymphadenopathy
 Aims & Objectives: To determine whether FNAC is a cost-effective diagnostic tool in evaluation of various benign and malignant Pathologies associated with cervical lymphadenopathy.
 Place and duration of study: It is a retrospective study conducted at Gulab Devi Hospital from April 2019 to April 2021.
 Material & Methods: The cyto-morphologic features seen in the aspirates were critically analyzed and correlated with their etiology. SPSS version 24.0 was analyzed for data analysis. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.
 Results: Among the 100 patients 56 were females and 44 were males with a female to male ratio of 1.3:1. The age range of the patients was from 3 to 75 years. 37% were reactive lymphadenitis, 32% were tuberculosis, 12% were suppurative, 11% were lymphoproliferative disorders, 8% cases were metastatic neoplasm.
 Conclusion: FNAC is a reliable and cost effective to diagnose the etiologies of cervical lymphadenopathy.