Fine needle aspiration cytology of the pancreas.

A review is presented of 205 fine needle aspirations of the pancreas performed on 149 patients. Clinical follow-up was available for 134 patients (88%). Aspirates from 71 patients (53%) were correctly diagnosed as malignant while those from 43 patients (32%) were correctly diagnosed as negative. Ten patients (7%) were falsely diagnosed as negative, and ten patients (7%) were diagnosed as suspicious. There were no false-positive diagnoses. This resulted in a specificity of 100%, a sensitivity of 87%, a diagnostic efficiency of 92%, a predictive value of a positive test of 100% and a predictive value of a negative test of 80%. The cytologic criteria of malignancy can be easily recognized. The complications are very few. Comparisons with the results of needle and wedge pancreatic biopsies are presented.