Abstract

Background: Lymphadenopathy isone ofthe mostcommon clinicalpresentation amongpatients. Indeveloping countries such as India, tuberculous (TB) lymphadenitis is one of the common causes of lymphadenopathy. Cytomorphology with acid-fast staining is a valuable diagnostic tool in cases of tuberculosis.
Objective: TodescribepatternofTBlymphadenitispresentation,andtocompareresultsof fineneedleaspirationcytology (FNAC) and Ziehl–Neelsen (ZN) stain in the diagnosis of TB lymphadenitis. MaterialsandMethods:Total351patientsoflymphadenopathyreferredtotheDepartmentofPathology,GMERSMedical College & Hospital, Vadodara, Gujarat, India, between March 2011 and December 2013included. FNAC was performed in all these patients and smears were prepared. Smears were stained with hematoxylin and eosin stain. ZN staining for acid- fast bacilli (AFB) was carried out on separate slide.
Results:Maximum numberofpatients (162;46.15%)were fromagegroupof11–30years.Total351cases[179(50.99%) females and 172 (49.00%) males] were included in the study. Of 351 cases, 173 (49.28%) had tuberculosis, 141 (40.17%) hadlymphadenitisotherthantuberculosis,and37(10.54%)hadmalignantlymphadenopathy,including2(0.56%)casesof primary malignancy (i.e., lymphoma) and 35 (09.97%) of metastasis to lymph nodes. Overall, 119 (33.90%) cases were found to be positive for AFB on ZN staining. Conclusion: FNAC is an optimally selected, efficient, easy to perform, and economical test for initial diagnostic workup in patients with TB lymphadenitis. Supplementation of ZN stain with FNAC increases the rates of diagnosis.