Discrepancy of target sites between clinician and cytopathological reports in head neck fine needle aspiration: Did I miss the target or did the clinician mistake the organ site?

The diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of head and neck lesions is relatively high, but cytologic interpretation might be confusing if the sample is lacking typical cytologic features according to labeled site by physician. These errors may have an impact on pathology search engines, healthcare costs or even adverse outcomes. The cytology archive database of multiple institutions in southern Iran and Australia covering the period 2001–2011, were searched using keywords: salivary gland, head, neck, FNAC, and cytology. All the extracted reports were reviewed. The reports which showed discordance between the clinician’s impression of the organ involved and subsequent fine needle biopsy request, and the eventual cytological diagnosis were selected. The cytological diagnosis was confirmed by histology or cell block, with assistance from imaging, clinical outcome, physical examination, molecular studies, or microbiological culture. The total number of 10,200 head and neck superficial FNAC were included in the study, from which 48 cases showed discordance between the clinicians request and the actual site of pathology. Apart from the histopathology, the imaging, clinical history, physical examination, immunohistochemical study, microbiologic culture and molecular testing helped to finalize the target organ of pathology in 23, 6, 7, 8, 2, and 1 cases respectively. The commonest discrepancies were for FNAC of “salivary gland” [total: 20 with actual final pathology in: bone (7), soft tissue (5), lymph node (3), odontogenic (3) and skin (2)], “lymph node” [total: 12 with final pathology in: soft tissue (3), skin (3), bone (1) and brain (1)], “soft tissue” [total: 11 with final pathology in: bone (5), skin (2), salivary gland (1), and ocular region (1)] and “skin” [total: 5 with final pathology in: lymph node (2), bone (1), soft tissue (1) and salivary gland (1)]. The primary physician requesting FNAC of head and neck lesions are incorrect in their clinical impression of the actual site in nearly 0.5 percent of cases, due to the overlapping clinical and imaging findings or possibly due to inadequate history taking or physical examination

A Case Report on Hepatic Extramedullary Hematopoiesis as the Manifestation of Progression to Secondary Myelofibrosis in a Patient with Essential Thrombocytopenia

Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), which include primary myelofibrosis (PMF) and essential thrombocytopenia (ET), are characterized by the clonal proliferation of mature blood cells as a result of the overactivation of the JAK/STAT pathway. Extramedullary hematopoiesis (EMH), a common complication of PMF, occurs due to the dysregulation of the bone marrow microenvironment. We report an interesting case of a 73-year-old female with a working diagnosis of ET who was found to have EMH in the liver on biopsy after she had newly onset elevated liver enzymes and her ET had progressed to secondary myelofibrosis. We conclude that in patients with MPN who have rising liver enzymes, EMH in the liver should be part of the differential diagnosis. In addition, we believe that EMH is a sign of progression from MPN to secondary myelofibrosis and that it is imperative for performing bone marrow aspiration and biopsy in order to reassess hematopoiesis and to look for bone marrow fibrosis as well as evidence of progression