Validity of Ultrasound Guided FNAB for the Diagnosis of Breast Carcinoma

Background: A number of biopsy techniques have been utilized to procure tissue samples from suspected malignant masses ofbreast. The availability and cost of these techniques varies but they are all associated with significant local trauma. Among them,the fine needle aspiration biopsy is a time-tested low-cost diagnostic test that has been in use for decades.Objective: This study was conducted with an aim to establish the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negativepredictive value of ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) for diagnosis of malignancies of breast.Materials & Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Radiology Department, in alliance with thedepartments of Surgery and Pathology (outdoor patient and indoor patient)Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad from 1st May 2019to 31 December 2019. Initially sixty patients were recruited however histopathology of ten patients were not available so they wereexcluded from final results. Data was collected from 50 females with suspected breast malignancy. The biopsy of breast massusing fine needle aspiration technique under ultrasound guidance was performed on each member of the cohort of fifty patient. Tovalidate the result, each member underwent surgical biopsy (incisional/excisional) thereafter.The results of FNAB was comparedwith the histopathology reports to determine accuracy of FNAB.Results: USG-FNAB was able to correctly diagnose 49 cases in 50 patients with an accuracy of 98%. 25 cases were declared asmalignant while 25 cases were categorized as benign lesion. Out of the 25 negative cases, on histopathology 24 cases werecorrectly diagnosed while 01 case was false negative, on histopathology it proved to be invasive papillary carcinoma.Conclusion: that FNAB is a key preliminary test for the diagnosis of the breast lumps, and when done under ultrasound guidance,the results show a significant correlation with the final histopathology report.Keywords: Biopsy, Carcinoma, Histopathology, Fibroadenoma