title: Guided fine needle aspiration cytology of retroperitoneal masses - Our experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Early pathological classification of retroperitoneal masses is important for pin-point diagnosis and timely management.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study was done to evaluate the usefulness and drawbacks of guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of retroperitoneal masses covering a period of two years with an intention to distinguish between neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions and to correlate with histologic findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  FNAC was done under radiological guidance in all cases using long needle fitted with disposable syringe. Appropriate staining was done and cytology was correlated with histology which was taken as the gold standard for comparison.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-one patients who presented with retroperitoneal masses were studied. Forty-four lesions were malignant cytologically and 7 were inflammatory (tuberculous). According to radiological and cytologic findings, we classified our cases into four groups: renal tumors, retroperitoneal lymphadenopathy, germ cell tumors, soft tissue tumors. Except for cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and metastatic lesions, we had sensitivity and specificity of 100%. In NHL the sensitivity and specificity were both 50%. In cases of metastatic adenocarcinoma, the sensitivity and specificity were 84.6% and 81.8%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ignoring the pitfalls, guided FNAC is still an inexpensive and reliable method of early diagnosis of retroperitoneal lesions.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology, Radiology and Gynaecology, North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling, India.
authors.forename: Mimi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gangopadhyay
authors.forename: Nirmal Kumar
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Bhattacharyya
authors.forename: Sailes
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: Subrata
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakrabarty
authors.forename: Narayan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pandit