Fine Needle Aspiration of the Breast

Abstract

          Objective:  To evaluate the efficiency of breast FNA by correlation between cytologic and histologic diagnoses.

          Materials and methods:  The author reviewed the records of patients who had undergone breast fine needle aspiration and subsequent histopathologic diagnoses during January 2001 to December 2003 at the Department of Anatomical Pathology, Saraburi hospital. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated with the assumption that the "suspicious” group was classified as positivity for malignancy and cases with a diagnosis of unsatisfactory were not included in further analysis.

          Results:  There were 55 matching cases. Eliminating unsatisfactory results, statistical analysis of the remaining 46 cases yielded the following results : sensitivity 85%, specificity 96.1%, positive predictive value 94.4% and negative predictive value 89.2%.

          Conclusion:  The results compared favorably with those in the literature. An understanding of the performance and limitations of FNA can enhance its value as diagnostic method in the management of breast disease.