Study of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in Lymphadenopathy with Special Reference to Acid-fast Staining in Cases of Tuberculosis

The present study was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of FNAC as a diagnostic tool in 1000 patients of lymphadenopathy. Fine needle aspiration was performed in all the patients following through clinical examination and slides were stained with H & E, PAP and Ziehl Neelsen stains. The results of FNAC were further correlated with paraffin embedded sections of tissue blocks. Eight hundred and sixty-four cases (86.4%) were of benign lymphadenopathy; out of which 536 (53.6%) cases were of reactive nature and 328 cases (32.8%) were tubercular. The remaining 136 (13.6%) cases were of malignant lymphadenopathy, consisting 45 (4.5%) cases of primary malignancies i.e. lymphomas and 91 (9.1%) cases of metastasis to lymph nodes. Out of 328 cases, Z-N positivity for AFB was found in 152 cases (46.4%) and Mantoux test was positive in 180 cases (54.9%). On correlation of FNAC findings with histopathology; sensitivity and specificity was found out to be 91.6% and 99%, respectively, with diagnostic accuracy of 97.3% in cases of benign lesions. The same being 97%, 97.5% and 97.4%, respectively in tubercular lesions. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy was 100% each in malignant lesions. FNAC of lymphnodes is an excellent first line method, for investigating the nature of the lesions, as it is economical and convenient alternative to open biopsy.

RAEB-t in young adults--a rare entity.

Refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation (RAEB-t) in young adults is a rare entity. RAEB-t presenting with megaloblastic erythropoiesis should be differentiated from nutritional B12 and folic acid deficiency and from acute erythroleukemia. We report two cases in the present article.

Serum immunoglobulin levels in neoplastic disorder of breast.

Serum IgG, IgA and IgM were estimated in 42 cases of carcinoma and 12 cases of fibroadenoma of breast. The results were compared with 20 healthy female controls. Results showed increased levels of serum IgA in carcinoma breast cases. This increase was statistically significant (p = 0.001) when compared with healthy controls while IgG and IgM values were found to be insignificant. Values of IgG, IgA and IgM in cases of fibroadenoma breast when compared with the controls were found to be insignificant. Statistically significant increased value of IgA was also observed in medullary carcinoma and non-metastasizing tumours when viewed separately, suggestive of good prognostic index of serum IgA level estimation in the case of carcinoma breast.