Role of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in the Diagnosis of Skin and Superficial Soft Tissue Lesions: A Study of 510 Cases.

OBJECTIVE Diseases of the skin and superficial subcutaneous soft tissues present with a wide array of lesions ranging from nonspecific dermatoses and inflammatory lesions to frank neoplasms. Though cytopathology is an excellent diagnostic tool in routine dermatologic practice, studies relating to histopathological and cytological correlation are sparse. The aim of this study was to analyze the concordance rate between cytological and histopathological diagnosis of skin and superficial soft tissue lesions. MATERIAL AND METHOD We retrospectively studied 510 consecutive fine needle aspiration cytology findings of cases from North Bengal Medical College and Hospital and correlated their diagnoses based upon cytological and histopathological grounds. RESULTS Out of the 510 cases studied, 253 were non neoplastic lesions and 257 were neoplastic. A high degree of concordance was observed (100% for malignant and 96.15% for benign lesions) when these two diagnostic modalities were compared. Histopathological correlation was possible in all malignant, 52/189 (27.51%) of benign and 27/253 (10.67%) of non-neoplastic lesions. Sensitivity and specificity of diagnoses were 95.31% and 97.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION It can be safely concluded that fine needle aspiration cytology is a rapid, reliable and fairly accurate tool for initial triage and treatment of skin and superficial soft tissue lesions.