title: The use of fine-needle aspiration biopsy in children.
abstract: Fine-needle aspiration biopsy has become increasingly popular for evaluating both palpable and nonpalpable masses. Judging from the current body of literature, this procedure is underused by American pediatricians. We report a series of 84 pediatric patients--younger than 16 years--who underwent 92 fine-needle aspiration biopsies to evaluate a large variety of masses. The results of 51 (55%) were benign, and 33 (36%) biopsies revealed malignancy. In two cases (2%) the findings were suggestive of malignancy, and in six cases (7%), insufficient material was rendered for diagnosis. Either histologic or clinical follow-up or both were available for 85 procedures. Based on these cases, the sensitivity of 97% and the specificity was 95%, indicating that fine-needle aspiration biopsy is a good method for screening and observing patients for various malignant tumors in a variety of organs.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bottles
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ablin
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity