Value of fine needle aspiration biopsy cytology in the diagnosis of discrete hepatic lesions suspicious for malignancy.

Ninety-five sequential computerized tomography (CT) guided fine needle aspirates (FNA) of the liver, taken between January 1986 and December 1989 were reviewed to assess the accuracy of this method in diagnosing discrete hepatic lesions suspicious for malignancy. Clinical follow-up information, or a tissue diagnosis or both were available in 71 of these cases. False-negative results were found in four of the cases. Forty-six cases in the group gave a positive result with FNA and confirmatory tissue diagnosis was made in 25 of these cases. Detailed clinical follow-up produced additional support for the diagnosis in 20 other cases. Twenty-four cases were negative but clinical follow-up indicated that there were four false-negative diagnoses. The one false-positive case in this series was diagnosed as a hepatocellular carcinoma in a patient with haemochromatosis. Overall, the results gave a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 87%.