Role of fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of focal liver lesions

ABSTRACT

Fine Needle Aspiration [FNAC] of focal liver lesions was carried out at Allama Iqbal Medical College / Jinnah Hospital, Lahore and author's lab. in 108 patients between January 2000 to August 2002 to evaluate the role of FNAC in diagnosis of focal liver lesions and to find out different patholigies which present as focal liver. Out of these 108 patients, most of them [87.96%] were above the age of 40 with male preponderance [55.55%]. Morphologically, malignant lesions were more common [74.08%] with hepatocellular carcinoma[HCC] as the most common malignancy [42.59%] followed by metastatic malignancies [23.15%], undifferentiated malignancies [5.55%] and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 3[2.78%] patients while in two patients [1.85%] only normal hepatocytes were aspirated. In 13 [12.04%] patients aspirates were inadequate for any morphological evaluation. It is concluded that FNAC is a useful technique in evaluating the liver masses. However there are some difficulties which can be overcome by more experience in aspiration and better coordination between radiologist, pathologist and clinicians