Accuracy of ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration cytology in head and neck lesions

Background:  Palpable superficial mass (es) is a major complain making patients attending any surgical and otolarygeal clinic. Most of these lesions are related to thyroid, cervical lymph nodes or salivary glands Triple assessment technique using clinical examination, ultrasound and cytology are usually sufficient in reaching the final diagnosis especially in specialized surgical centers. Aims: The objective of this study was to assess how accurate ultrasound in guessing the diagnosis of the lesion and how accurate as a guide for fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC). Methods: A prospective study included 50 patients who were presented with self-detected head or neck lump and attending the specialized surgical clinic in the Medical City Complex, Baghdad during the period from November 2019 to October 2020. Their age ranged from 10-63 years. Patients were underwent ultrasound examination after clinical examination and then subjected to ultrasound guided FNAC. Results: Twenty patients presented with palpable lump were included in this study. Their ages ranged between 10 to 63 years (mean age 37.8 years). Regarding the distribution of the anatomical locations the majority of the lesions were lymph nodes (7/20) six of them are cervical and one of them was inguinal, the 2nd common location was the parotid gland seen in four out of twenty, The provisional diagnosis provided by ultrasound for lococregional pathology was benign in majority of Lymph node group (5/7) and malignant in two, three out of four parotid lesions are benign and all thyroid cases are also benign, The FNAC results in correlation with ultrasound findings are in concordance regarding the lymph nodes and parotid aspirates in 100% while thyroid aspirate was in concordance in 100% after two passes due to bloody aspirate, the aspirate from the breast is 50% in line and no concordance seen in 50 %, the aspirate is compatible regarding the hip mediastinum and sternomastoid while is not conclusive in lung aspirate. The accuracy of ultrasound in guiding the needle for targeting the lesion is 100%, and overall accuracy of ultrasound in reaching the final diagnosis is 85% with 100 % sensitivity. Conclusion: Ultrasound guided FNAC represents a reliable interventional radiology modality for targeting the needle to any superficial or ultrasound reachable deep seated head and neck lesion and considered a recommended method for assessment of underlying cause responsible for palpable head and neck mass this is due to reliable focusing the mass lesion, avoiding nearby vital organ or vessel and direct real time visualization of the needle within the lesion and by that sampling cells by flickering the needle within the lesion.