Value of fine needle aspiration in cytological diagnosis of salivary gland masses

Introduction: Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is one of important diagnostic procedures in evaluation ofmasses of salivary glands which is noteworthy due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. This studyaimed at comparing the results of FNA in masses of salivary glands with results of post-excisionalhistological examinations.Materials and Methods: In an analytic-descriptive setting, 51 patients with masses of salivary glandswere recruited during a 30-months period (April 2005- September 2007) in ear, nose and throat andpathology wards of Tabriz Imam Khomeini Hospital (Iran). Firstly, all the patients evaluated with FNAand then, post-excisional histopathological studies were carried out, considering as the final diagnosis.Results: Fifty one patients, 30 females and 21 males with the mean age of 32.87±16.41 (17-80) yearswere enrolled. Forty six masses located in parotid gland, 4 masses in submandibular gland and a mass insublingual gland. Results of FNA were consistent with definite diagnosis in 42 (82.4%) cases. Thisconsistency was 85.2% and 60% for benign and malignant masses, respectively. Sensitivity, specificity,positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of FNA for diagnosis and discriminationof benign masses from malignant ones were 85.4, 30, 83.3, 33.3 and 74.5 percent, respectively.Conclusion: There is a high consistency between the results of FNA and final histopathologicaldiagnosis in masses of salivary glands. Sensitivity of this procedure is high for diagnosis anddiscrimination of benign masses from malignant ones and the related specificity is low

Nucleolar Organizer Regions in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background and aims. Several diagnostic methods are being employed to detect benign and malignant lesions, one of which is silver nitrate staining for organizer regions. The number of nucleolar organizing regions (NORs) can be used to show the degree of cell activity or metabolism in pathologic lesions. This study was designed to evaluate NORs as determinants of precancerous and squamous cell carcinoma. Materials and methods. A silver colloid technique was applied on paraffin sections of 40 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma and 25 cases of precancerous lesions; 15 specimens of normal epithelium were selected for the control group. After staining with silver nitrate, argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) were counted in 100 epithelial cells in three groups with the use of an oil immersion and ×1000 objective lens. One-way ANOVA and a post hoc Tukey test were used for statistical analysis. Results. The mean numbers and standard deviations of AgNORs were 1.58 ± 0.76 in normal epithelium, 2.1 ± 1.05 in precancerous lesions and 2.43 ±1.33 in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). There were statistically significant differences in AgNORs numbers between the groups (P<0.001) and significant differences in precancerous lesions between dysplastic and non-dysplastic epithelia (P<0.001). The mean AgNORs count per nucleus increased from healthy epithelium to precancerous lesion to SCC. Conclusion. This study suggests that the silver staining technique for the detection of NORs (AgNOR) can be used to distinguish precancerous lesions and benign and malignant lesions