Endoscopic ultrasound guided brush/fine‐needle aspiration cytology: A 15‐month study

Background Endoscopic ultrasound‐guided fine‐needle aspiration (EUS‐FNA) has become increasingly popular for the diagnosis and staging of gastrointestinal diseases and peri‐gastrointestinal lesions. The application of FNA/Brush has dramatically expanded the clinical utility of EUS. Aims and objective To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy, study the spectrum of lesions encountered in EUS‐FNAC/brush cytology of gastrointestinal and peri‐gastrointestinal lesions. Materials and methods Total of 124 patients during the period from August 2015 to November 2016 was included in the study. Routine staining was done. Results A total of 124 cases were studied with 86% (107 cases) being satisfactory for evaluation. M:F ratio was 1:1.03, mean age of 50.5 years. The most common site was common bile duct (CBD) (37%) followed by lymph node (21%), pancreas (17.7%), esophagus (17%), stomach (3.5%), liver (1.8%), gallbladder (1%), and spleen (1%). In total, 53.4% lesions were benign, in 6.5% atypical cells were seen, 12.1% were suspicious for malignancy, and 28% cases were positive for malignancy. Follow‐up was available in 102 cases with cyto‐histopathological concordance rate of 90%. Conclusion EUS‐FNA/Brush is a reliable, sensitive, specific and minimally invasive way to establish a diagnosis. It can be utilized as a pre‐operative procedure for the management of many intra‐abdominal lesions and prevent unnecessary invasive procedures.