A prospective study of cervical lymphadenopathy and its clinico-pathological co-relation in general surgery OPD of a referral hospital for a period of one year

Abstract

Cervical lymphadenopathy represents a fairly common clinical presentation of diverse underlying pathology. The importance of a differential diagnosis is thought over by the fact that the diagnosis may change from a self-limiting viral infection to that of a disease having an altogether different line of management as tuberculosis or a potentially fatal disease as malignancy. This study prospectively followed 118 patients for one year and compared the prevalence of differential diagnosis of tubercular, nonspecific, malignant lymphadenopathy in different age groups based on the FNAC findings. The study outlines a higher overall prevalence of tubercular lymphadenopathy in a developing country as ours and a clear female preponderance. A higher male prevalence was observed in nonspecific reactive lymphadenopathy. Also for lymph nodes >2cm a combined tubercular and malignant adenitis prevalence reached 100%. FNAC is an easy and inexpensive tool for establishing a credible differential diagnosis.