Study of salivary gland lesions with fine needle aspiration cytology and histopothology along with immunohistochemistry.

Salivary gland swelling is a common and important problem. Acute and chronic sialadenitis, different benign and malignant neoplasms are the common causes which present with salivary gland swelling. Imaging technique is not so helpful in pre-operative diagnosis; microscopical examination is required for diagnosis. Pre-operative core needle biopsy is hazardous and may damage facial nerve, lead to fistula formation or associated with tumour seeding. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is however virtually risk-free. The study was done to assess the utility of FNAC and its accuracy and pitfalls with respect to histopathology and advantages of immunohistochemistry. The study was done with 40 cases of salivary gland swelling. After clinical examination, FNAC and histopathological examination along with immunohistochemistry was done and the results were correlated. Out of 40 cases, 25 involved the parotid gland, most common age group affected was 20 - 40 years and male: female ratio was 5: 3. Out of 40 cases 37 cases were cytologically and histopathologically correlated and rest 3 cases were different. Among these 3 cases, 2 were adenoid cystic carcinoma which was cytologically diagnosed as benign neoplasm (monomorphic adenoma). One case of Warthin's tumour was cytologically diagnosed as pleomorphic adenoma. The sensitivity of this study was found to be 71.43%, specificity 100% and accuracy was 93.10%. This study corroborates well with other studies including immunohistochemical findings. p53 expression was found to be related with nature of the neoplasm. FNAC is an important tool for early diagnosis of salivary gland lesions.