title: Fine needle aspiration biopsy in the oral cavity and head and neck region.
abstract: The objective of the current study was to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of submucous nodules from the oral cavity and head and neck region as an auxiliary diagnostic tool. Fifty patients with nodule lesions in the oral cavity and the head and neck region were selected. All of them were submitted to FNAB and to either incisional or excisional biopsy. The diagnoses from the FNABs were compared with the biopsy diagnosis as the gold standard. All the cases of FNAB were analyzed by a single oral pathologist prior to the biopsy diagnosis. The results showed that the sensitivity of FNAB was 75%, its specificity was 96% and its accuracy was 58.8%. The false positive and false negative rates were 6.7% and 13.3%, respectively. The positive predictive value was 86% and the negative predictive value was 93%. The inconclusive rate was 16/50. FNAB displayed a high success rate for identifying both malignant and benign lesions, but a low accuracy for making a final diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, School of Dentistry, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. anapaulacs@usp.br
authors.forename: Ana Paula Candido dos
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Norberto Nobuo
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Sugaya
authors.forename: Décio dos Santos
authors.initials: Ddos S
authors.lastname: Pinto Junior
authors.forename: Celso Augusto
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Lemos Junior
mesh_terms: D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle / Q000379:methods*; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009055:Mouth / Q000473:pathology*; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D009333:Neck / Q000473:pathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results