Study of fine-needle aspiration cytology of lymph node in rural area of Bastar District, Chhattisgarh

Aims and Objectives: Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) as the first line of investigation has assumed importance in diagnosing a variety of disease processes as it is rapid, simple, reliable, minimally invasive, and cost-effective procedure which can be used in outpatient setting. Lymphadenopathy is one of the most common clinical presentations of patients attending the outpatient department. This study was performed to find out the pattern of diseases in lymph node in the rural area of Bastar District of Chhattisgarh State. Materials and Methods: A prospective study of 310 cases of lymphadenopathy presenting to the Department of Pathology for 2 years from January 2014 to December 2015 was taken up for our study. FNAC was performed using a 22–24-gauge needle and 10 ml syringe. Two of the prepared smears were fixed in alcohol and stained with hematoxylin and eosin and Papanicolaou stain. Two smears were air-dried, one was stained with Leishman stain and the other kept unstained to be used for Ziehl–Neelsen staining whenever a cytological diagnosis of granulomatous disease was made and also in cases with abundant necrosis and suppuration. Results: Most common lesion found in our study was tubercular lymphadenitis, followed by granulomatous lymphadenitis and reactive hyperplasia. Conclusion: Our study highlighted the various cytomorphological patterns of lymphadenopathy and revealed a huge burden of tuberculous lymphadenitis in this region.