Histocytopathological Evaluation of Soft Tissue Tumours: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Introduction: Soft Tissue Tumours (STTs) are a heterogeneous group of lesions arising from non-epithelial extraskeletal tissue of the body. The use of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) in the evaluation of STTs is debatable because of their extremely varied morphology. Aim: To assess the efficacy of FNAC in the diagnosis of STTs as a routine procedure. Materials and Methods: The present study was a retrospective study conducted at VSS Institute of Medical Science and Research, Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha, India, from December 2016 to November 2018. A total of 186 cases of STT were correlated with histopathological studies. Fine needle aspirate air-dried smears were stained with Diff-Quik and 95% alcohol fixed smears were stained with Papanicolaou (PAP) stain. Corresponding histopathological sections were stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stain. Immunostaining was performed as and when required to confirm histological diagnosis. Results were analysed using International Business Machines (IBM) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics 22.0. Results: Out of 186 cases, 162 (87.09%) were diagnosed as benign and 24 (12.91%) as malignant. Three false negative and two false positive cases were reported. The sensitivity, specificity, Positive Predictive Values (PPV), Negative Predictive Values (NPV) and overall diagnostic accuracy were 87.5%, 98.7%, 91.3%, 98.1% and 97.3%, respectively. There was statistically significant difference between the cytological diagnosis and the final histological diagnosis (χ2 =35.5, p<0.05). Conclusion: Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) is very important for initial diagnostic work-up, while histopathology with the help of immunostain provides a final diagnosis.

Keywords

• benign
• immunostain
• malignant