Correlation of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology, Smear and Culture in Tuberculous Lymphadenitis: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Tuberculous lymphadenitis is the commonest form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a simple out-patient diagnostic procedure used for the diagnosis of tuberculous lymphadenitis. Over the last two decades, fine needle aspiration cytology has emerged as a simple outpatient diagnostic procedure for the evaluation of tuberculous lymphadenitis. This has replaced excision biopsy of lymph node. In this study, FNAC was complemented with smear examination and culture for AFB. It was observed that out of the 100 reported cases of tuberculosis on FNAC direct smear positivity on ZN staining was 3/100(3%). After the inoculation of residual aspirated material on LJ medium the culture yield was 27/100(27%). Thus FNAC had greater diagnostic efficacy, proved to be a rapid, less time consuming & non-invasive screening test for evaluation of tuberculous lymphadenitis. Settings and Design: A retrospective laboratory basedstudy at, Meezan lab Faisalabad. Material and Methods: 100 patients of lymphadenitis which were diagnosed as cases of granulomatous inflammation on FNAC were included in this study. These cases were reported on cytology by using the Giemsa stain, H& E stain, Gram & Ziehl Neelsen stain. After the smear preparation the part of left over aspirated material was inoculated on LJ medium and were reported on the basis of morphological features by concerned microbiologist. Results: Out of these 100 selected reported cases of tuberculous lymphadenitis culture revealed growth of Mycobacterium on 27 of them. While direct microscopic examination of the ZN stained smears from these aspirates revealed the presence of AFB in only 3 out of 100 cases.