title: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology of Papulonodular Lesions of Skin: A Study of 50 Cases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Skin is one of the frequent site of disease in human body. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is a safe diagnostic method in these cases. FNAC has some limitation, particularly related to representativity of samples, exact typing of skin adnexal tumours and classifying the nature of metastatic cutaneous nodules. Thus, FNAC alone may not give a confirmative diagnosis regarding few skin lesions. Hence, histopathological study has been the standard technique for the diagnosis of skin lesions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the FNAC findings in various papulonodular lesions and to correlate them with histopathological findings wherever possible.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the present study, 50 cases of clinically diagnosed papulonodular lesions were evaluated by FNAC and correlated with histopathology wherever possible.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was 100% correlation in cases of epidermal cyst, leprosy, tuberculosis, actinomycosis, acute and chronic inflammatory lesions and 67% accuracy was seen in adnexal tumours. Aspiration cytology along with radiological studies proved very useful in classifying the nature of metastatic cutaneous nodules and suggesting the possible site of unknown primary. Sensitivity of FNAC for epidermal cyst and inflammatory lesions was 100%. In case of adnexal tumours, sensitivity and specificity was 67% and 50% respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  FNAC is a rapid, efficient, cost effective, relatively painless procedure and produces a speedy result with high diagnostic accuracy. It has high rates of sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing papulonodular lesions of skin and hence, is a valuable tool in the diagnosis and management of patients with papulonodular skin lesions.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, JSS Medical College, JSS University , Mysuru, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Sapna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, JSS Medical College, JSS University , Mysuru, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Asha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahadevappa
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head of Department, Department of Pathology, JSS Medical College, JSS University , Mysuru, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Gubbanna Vimalambike
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Manjunath
keywords: Cytohistopathological correlation; Diagnostic accuracy; Sensitivity