title: Aspiration cytology for diagnosis of head and neck masses.
abstract: Most American clinicans have been relectant to utilize aspiration biopsy due to poor interpretive skills by the pathologists in the past and a fear of tumor spread by the needle. Voluminous European series and recent American series have proved aspiration to be safe and reliable. In our series of 78 cases, both thin-needle aspiration and conventional tissue biopsies were made. The diagnoses were compared and the overall agreement rate was 90%.
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods*; D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000379:methods*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis