High diagnostic yield of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration without an on-site cytopathologist.

Abstract

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a well-established modality in diagnosing and staging of various neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions. Its accuracy further increases in the presence of an on-site cytopathologist. There is a paucity of data on diagnostic yield of EUS-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) without an on-site cytopathologist. Retrospective data were analyzed at SMS Medical College, Jaipur, from January 2014 to October 2015. All patients who underwent EUS-guided FNAC in the Department of Gastroenterology were included. Data related to demography, lesion parameters on EUS, and histology were analyzed. Two hundred patients (age 46.2±18.6, 144 male) were studied. EUS-FNAC slides from 162 (82%) were considered adequate by cytopathologist for the diagnosis of benign or malignant lesions. Slide preparation adequacy was 100% for mediastinal and renal and suprarenal masses, 87.06% for pancreatic, 73.46% for lymph nodes, and 88.88% for other lesions. Mean number of passes was 1.92±0.82. Diagnostic yield of EUS-guided FNAC is high even in the absence of on-site cytopathologist.