fine needle aspiration cytology in diagnosis of nonthyroidal neck masses

fine needle aspiration (fna) technique is a well-known procedure in the diagnosis of various organ diseases. this study was conducted to evaluate the utility of fna in the dianosis of neck masses. fine needle aspiration was performed upon 123 patients with palpable nonthyroidal lesions at neck during a five-year period. in ten cases, fna findings were nondiagnostic. from the reminder 113 patients, histopathologic results of 55 patients were available. histopathologic evaluation revealed that 71% of cases had benign lesions, and 29% had malignant tumors. false negative and false positive rates were 1.8% and 5.4% respectively. the sensitivity and specificity of fna in determining malignant lesions were 8.21% and 97.4% respectively. predictive positive and negative values were 92.8% and 92.7% respectively. sensitivity of fna in determining malignancy in lymph nodes was 72% (12.5% false negative). based on our study findings, and those of other studies, we recommend performing fine needle aspiration in those patients who present with neck masses.it is worthwhile to mention that except those cases with negative results of lymph node origin, most fna findings are reliable and in such cases, open surgical biopsy is unnecessary.