Diagnostic Impact of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in Pediatric Abdominal Mass in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Paediatric abdominal tumours include a variety of neoplasm having characteristic incidence, pathology and clinical behaviour. Pathologists play a very important role in the management of paediatric abdominal masses by giving an accurate diagnosis for these potentially curable tumours. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a rapid and valuable tool in this regard. The aim of the present study is to correlate FNAC findings with histopathological features, with special emphasis on diagnostic efficacy of FNAC. 50 patients presenting with abdominal masses were selected using prospective non-randomized method followed by clinical & radiological examination and ultrasonography guided FNAC were done. Patients with severe coagulopathy, history of acute hypertensive crisis and already diagnosed cases were excluded. Out of 50 cases, we found 5 benign lesions and 45 malignant lesions. FNAC was inconclusive in only two cases. Out of 50 cases, the majority of cases (82%) were seen in the 0-5 years of age group. Concordance with final histopathology was subsequently obtained in 48/50 (96%) of cases. FNAC is a simple technique with minimal trauma without any major complication. This study shows that FNAC is both sensitive (98%) and specific (80%). It has a high positive predictive value (98%) and a negative predictive value of 80% for diagnosing paediatric malignancies. Overall diagnostic accuracy was found to be of 96%. Thus we can conclude FNAC is a valuable diagnostic aid as it is easily done with reliable results.