Fine needle aspiration findings in malignant ameloblastoma: a case report and differential diagnosis.
We present a case of malignant ameloblastoma presenting in the posterior mandible and cervical lymph nodes of an African American child. This case is somewhat unusual in that the patient was an adolescent and presented with metastatic disease. This partly clinical as well as cytologic diagnosis was facilitated by the presence of typical ameloblastoma cytology in multiple cervical lymph nodes adjacent to the histologically confirmed intraosseous ameloblastoma. Although cytology is helpful in diagnosing ameloblastoma, its features are by no means definitive as there are several cytologic mimics. A high index of suspicion is therefore necessary to confirm or exclude ameloblastoma when evaluating any jaw lesion and/or adjacent enlarged lymph nodes by cytologic examination. Adequate sampling is paramount to accurate diagnosis, and is especially important when attempting to distinguish ameloblastoma from ameloblastic carcinoma.
Department of Pathology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia 30912, USA. mrnicholson@mcg.edu
Michelle
M
Reid-Nicholson
Daniel
D
Teague
Barry
B
White
Preetha
P
Ramalingam
Rafik
R
Abdelsayed
D000293:Adolescent; D000564:Ameloblastoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008339:Mandibular Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed