Demographic characteristics of patients with salivary gland diseases and importance of fine-needle aspiration biopsy
Fevzi Sefa Dereköy1, Tolgahan Toroslu1, Oğuz Güçlü1, Aslı Muratlı2, Kazım Tekin1, Medine Kara1
1Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Kulak-burun-boğaz Hastalıkları Ad, Çanakkale
2Başkent Üniversitesi Zübeyde Hanım Uygulama Ve Araştırma Merkezi, Patoloji Kliniği, İzmir
Keywords: Fine-needle aspiration biopsy, Non-neoplastic salivary gland diseases, salivary gland tumor.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the demographic and histopathological features of patients with lesions in the salivary glands in the head and neck region, and evaluate the safety of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB).
METHODS: Files of 43 patients of salivary glands (27 males, 16 females; mean age 48 years; range 6 to 79 years) diagnosed between January 2008 and July 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients' age, sex, lesion localization, and histopathological diagnoses were recorded. Any correlation between the preoperative FNAB and postoperative histopathological diagnoses was evaluated.
RESULTS: Eleven of the patients (26%) chronic sialoadenitis, one (2%) Sjogren’s syndrome, 24 (56%) benign salivary gland tumors and seven (16%) were malignant salivary gland tumors. Of the patients with salivary gland tumors, 21 were males (68%) and 10 were females (32%). Of the patients in which benign salivary gland lesions were detected, six were males (50%) and six were females (50%). Of the lesions, 24 (56%) were located in the parotid, 13 (30%) in the submandibular gland, and six (14%) in the minor salivary gland. Thirty patients were performed FNAB preoperatively. Fine-needle aspiration biopsies sensitivity was 80%, specificity was 92%, positive predictive value was 66%, negative predictive value was 95%, and accuracy rate was 90%. Neoplastic pathologies were observed in 72% of all cases, whereas non-neoplastic salivary gland disease was detected in 28%. While neoplastic cases were most often localized in the parotid, non-neoplastic diseases were located in the submandibular glands. 77% of the cases with neoplasm had benign, 23% had malign pathologies. Overall, while male sex was observed at a higher rate in all salivary gland pathologies, there was no sex difference in non-neoplastic cases.
CONCLUSION: High sensitivity and specificity values detected with FNAB, which is a safe, low-cost and easily applicable minimally invasive test, indicates that this technique can be used at the initial assessment of patients applying with salivary gland masses.