title: Fine needle aspiration: an atraumatic method to diagnose head and neck masses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients presenting with a mass require tissue biopsy for histological diagnosis and treatment. Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is offered as an atraumatic, well tolerated, and inexpensive method for obtaining a biopsy from these lesions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this study we evaluated the accuracy of FNA as an atraumatic method among patients with nonthyroidal masses for diagnosis of neoplastic masses compared to open surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a cross-sectional study, 65 patients with a head and neck masses (nonthyroidal) referred to us from 2004 to 2009. Those who had both FNA and open biopsy (the gold standard) were assessed for specificity, sensitivity, positive and negative predictive values of FNA in diagnoses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty-five cases with both definite diagnoses of open biopsy and FNA were assessed. The mean (± standard deviation) age of patients was 39.96 ± 19.69 years (range 10 to 82 years). Twenty-five (40.8%) subjects were categorized as malignant neoplasms, 16 (19.4%) as benign neoplasms, and 24 (39.8%) as non-neoplastic lesions. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and also negative predictive values of FNA in the diagnosis of neoplastic masses were 95%, 85%, 92.68%, and 91.66% respectively, and the diagnostic accuracy was 92.3%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It seems that FNA is a useful atraumatic diagnostic technique with a high diagnostic accuracy which can provide a highly sensitive diagnosis with low false positive diagnoses in patients with nonthyroidal masses.
authors.affiliation: Trauma Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran ; Department of Surgery, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Jamal
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Akhavan-Moghadam
authors.affiliation: Trauma Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran ; Department of Surgery, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Afaaghi
authors.affiliation: Trauma Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran ; Department of Surgery, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Ali Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Maleki
authors.affiliation: Health Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran ; Atherosclerosis and Coronary Artery Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Amin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saburi
keywords: Biopsy, Fine-Needle; Diagnosis; Predictive Value of Tests; Sensitivity and Specificity