Abstract
Introduction Salivary gland lesions include a diverse range of histological types and biological behaviors, making accurate diagnosis and effective treatment challenging for specialists. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) plays a significant role in making preoperative diagnoses and further plans of surgery. In differentiating malignant from benign salivary gland tumors, the diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is high. However, the final diagnosis is histopathological. The aim of this study is to correlate cytological and histopathological interpretations in salivary gland lesions. Materials and method Thirty patients were included in this study, all of them were diagnosed with salivary gland swellings and operated on in the ear, nose, and throat (ENT) department of Mata Gujri Memorial (MGM) Medical College, Kishanganj, in the northeastern region of India, between December 2020 and November 2022. Ultrasonography (USG) and computed tomography (CT) scans were performed in each case, and FNAC was done to make a preoperative diagnosis. After surgery, specimens were collected for histopathological examination. A correlation was then made between the findings of the preoperative cytological examination and the results of the postoperative histopathological examination. The comparison was performed using a 2×2 table, and the analysis of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) was carried out using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA) and SPSS software (IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY). Results An equal number of male and female samples were included in the study, in which parotid involvement was predominant (60%). On FNAC, 53% of parotid gland tumors were found to be benign, whereas only 23.3% of submandibular gland tumors were benign. Pleomorphic adenoma was the most common finding. In the present study, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of USG-guided FNAC, compared to the gold standard histopathology, were 96%, 33.3%, 92.3%, and 50%, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy was found to be 89.3%. Conclusion The findings of this study suggest that FNAC is a reliable technique for the preoperative diagnosis of salivary gland tumors, as it is minimally invasive and offers valuable diagnostic information. An accurate cytological diagnosis can help avoid unnecessary surgery.