title: Aspiration cytology of breast lumps.
abstract: The results of 287 aspirations performed on palpable breast lumps over a period of 20 months are presented. This is the first documentation of a Sri Lankan experience of this technique. The cytological assessment showed 52 malignant, 149 benign, 8 atypical, 6 suspicious and 72 inadequate aspirates. All lesions with a cytological diagnosis of malignancy were confirmed by histological assessment (False positives = 0). Histological follow up in 96 of the 149 cytologically benign lesions showed that 2 were malignant, giving a false negative rate of 2.1%. Three atypical lesions (37.5%) and four suspicious (66.2%) and 10 inadequate aspirates (13.7%) were also malignant.
authors: Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.
authors: M P
authors: MP
authors: Kumarasinghe
authors: A H
authors: AH
authors: Sheriffdeen
mesh_terms: D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000379:methods*; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D003584:Cytological Techniques; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity