Fine needle aspiration biopsy of granulomatous disorders

Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is widely used to examine neoplastic tumors, but it's value in the diagnosis of granulomatous disorders has not been investigated. The clinical outcome and the histological diagnoses of 21 patients who had a granulomatous inflammation diagnosed by FNAB were studied. In 8 cases the granulomatous nature of the lesion was confirmed by histology, and in the rest of the cases the clinical data available was consistent with the FNAB diagnosis. Seven cases of tuberculous lymphadenitis, 5 of sarcoidosis, 5 of sarcoid cell reaction related to cancer, 3 of granulomatous parotitis and one case of postvaccinial granulomatous lymphadenitis were diagnosed. We conclude that FNAB is a practical and reliable method to diagnose granulomatous disorders.