Efficacy of fine-needle aspiration and sampling of lymph nodes in 1,484 Chinese patients

A retrospective study of 1,855 fine-needle aspirations of the lymph node (LN) from 1,484 Chinese patients in Queen Mary Hospital over a period of 11.5 yr (January 1, 1976, to June 30, 1987) was reviewed and analyzed. Positive cytologic results diagnosed malignancies in 49.3%. Sensitivity and specificity of cytology reached 95% and 96.5%, respectively. The order of frequency of the metastatic tumors according to primary sites was analyzed. The most common metastatic carcinomas in various groups of LNs were nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the cervical LN, breast carcinoma in the axillary LN, and cervical carcinoma in both the groin and pelvic LNs. Tuberculosis (TB) is an important differential diagnosis; FNAC showed a sensitivity of 76.9% in the detection of TB lymphadenopathy.