Evaluation of usefulness of fine-needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of tumours of the accessory parotid gland: a preliminary analysis of a case series in Japan.
CONCLUSIONS
The accuracy and sensitivity of fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in this analysis were not satisfactory, and the false-negative rate seemed to be higher than for parotid tumours. The possibility of low-grade malignancy should be considered in the surgical treatment of accessory parotid gland (APG) tumours, even if the preoperative results of FNAC suggest that the tumour is benign.


OBJECTIVE
Little is known about the usefulness of FNAC in the preoperative evaluation of APG tumours, probably due to the paucity of APG tumour cases. We examined the usefulness of FNAC in the detection of malignant APG tumours.


METHODS
We conducted a retrospective analysis of 3 cases from our hospital, along with 18 previously reported Japanese cases. We compared the preoperative FNAC results with postoperative histopathological diagnoses of APG tumours and evaluated the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and false-negative rates of FNAC in detecting malignant APG tumours.


RESULTS
There were four false-negative cases (19.0%), three of mucoepidermoid carcinomas and one of malignant lymphoma. One false-positive result was noted in the case of a myoepithelioma, which was cytologically diagnosed as suspected adenoid cystic carcinoma. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of FNAC in detecting malignant tumours were 76.2%, 60.0% and 90.9%, respectively.
Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine , Osaka , Japan.
Hiroyoshi
H
Iguchi
Tadashi
T
Wada
Naoki
N
Matsushita
Masahiro
M
Oishi
Yuichi
Y
Teranishi
Hideo
H
Yamane
D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D018277:Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D009208:Myoepithelioma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D010307:Parotid Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
Salivary gland; false-negative rate; low-grade malignancy; mucoepidermoid carcinoma