Fine needle aspiration cytology of enlarged lymph nodes and gender differences

To observe patterns in the pathological findings of lymph-node FNAC. Exploratory and Cross-sectional examination of medical records. Department of Histopathology of Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, from 1992 to 1995 [four years]. A total of 548 fine needle aspiration cytologies were performed on patients presenting with enlarged lymph nodes. Two histopathologists evaluated each slide to confirm the findings. Descriptive analysis of the FNAC results was conducted and efficacy of the procedure was estimated. Male to female ratios were calculated and chi-square test was applied. Eighty-eight percent of the FNACs yielded a positive result on the first attempt. Infectious and cancerous FNACs averaged 42.36% and 32.09%, respectively. Granulomatous lesions were most frequently due to tuberculosis. Men were twice as likely as women to have cancer detected by an FNAC, chi[2] 24, [p 0.05]. Poorly differentiated cancer was three times as likely to be found in males than females, chi[2] 8.02. Male: female ratio for metastatic lesions was 2:1, chi[2] 11.12 [p 0.05]. In this study, infectious diseases appeared to present more frequently than cancerous lesions, as is observed in underdeveloped countries. This study complements other studies and opens new research questions, regarding gender differences in the prevalence of cancer found in enlarged lymph nodes, as cancers including the metastatic, detected on FNAC were more common in males than females