Fine-needle aspiration of neural lesions

The cytomorphologic features of 13 neural lesions sampled by fine-needle aspiration (FNA) are reviewed. The frequencies at which various architectural features including Verocay bodies, filamentous background, and vascular arcades were present was recorded, along with the frequencies of cytologic findings including the presence of spindle cells, wavy nuclei, intranuclear inclusions, fishhook nuclei, nuclear pleomorphism, filamentous cytoplasm, and mitotic figures. Verocay bodies were a rare finding, present in only 1 of 11 cases. Vascular arcades were similarly infrequent (1/11 cases). Spindle-shaped cells along with wavy nuclei were the most frequent findings, with fishhook-shaped nuclei and a filamentous background of high frequency (9/11 cases). Our study indicates that some of the characteristic features recorded in the literature are rarely seen in needle aspiration smears, but features such as spindle-shaped cells, wavy and fishhook-shaped nuclei, and a filamentous background are relatively frequent findings.