Role of USG guided FNAC in diagnosis of abdominal and thoracic lesions

A prospective study was carried out during 2010 - 2012 in which a total of 194 patients underwent USG guided FNAC from lesions in deep seated thoracic and abdominal organs. These included liver, lungs, intra-abdominal lymphnodes, gall bladder, ovary and adnexa, pancreas, stomach, omentum, other mass of unknown origin in peritoneal cavity, mediastinum, kidney, colon, small intestine, pleura, appendix and adrenal gland. Of these, FNAC was diagnostic in 168 (86.7%) cases, in 15 (7.7%) cases it was not conclusive. In next 6 (3.1%) it was suspicious of malignancy and the smears were acellular and /or contained blood only in 5 (2.6%) cases. Of all diagnosed cases, 153 (78.9%) cases were malignant, 28 (14.4%) were non-noplastic which included inflammatory, infective and granulomatous lesions and 13 (6.7 %) were benign neoplastic lesions. In liver, metastatic adenocarcinoma was the most common FNAC diagnosis, in lungs non-small cell carcinoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the overall role of USG guided FNAC in diagnosis of abdominal and thoracic lesions.