An experience with ultrasonically guided liver aspirates from south India

Fine needle aspiration (FNA) was performed on 102 hepatic lesions under ultrasound control. Eighty-eight lesions were solid and 14 were cystic. Ninety aspirates provided adequate material for cytodiagnosis. Aspirates from the solid lesions were assessed for the presence or absence of 20 cytological features. It was found that on a univariate statistical analysis, 11 of the features were significantly associated with hepatocellular carcinomas. Five of these 11 were considered diagnostic of the lesion on a step-wise multiple linear regression analysis. Two other features (not included among the 11) were found to be significantly associated with metastatic neoplasms. Cystic lesions were diagnosed as being either abscesses, hydatid cysts or congenital cysts. The physical appearance of the cyst fluid proved to be of diagnostic value in many cases.