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Diagnostic value of fine-needle aspiration from parotid gland lesions
Michael Lurie1, Ines Misselevitch, Milo Fradis
1Departments of Pathology and Otolaryngology, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Technion Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel. m_lurie@netvision.net.il
Background:
Fine-needle aspiration is a widely accepted method in the preoperative evaluation of head and neck tumors. However, its effectiveness in the interpretation of salivary gland disorders is controversial.
Objectives:
To evaluate the effectiveness of FNA as a preoperative diagnostic tool of parotid lesions.
Methods:
Reports of 52 FNA from various parotid gland lesions were compared with the final pathologic diagnoses.
Results:
We noted 31 true positive, 5 true negative and 16 false negative results. There were no false positive FNA reports. The calculated sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of FNA diagnosis in this study were 66%, 100%, and 69.2% respectively.
Conclusions:
The high rate (30.8%) of false negative FNA results was partly explained by sampling errors, therefore specificity of the procedure could be improved by the precise selection of a representative aspiration site.