| Summary: | Background: Accurate diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin′s Lymphoma (NHL) on fine-needle aspiration (FNA) specimen is challenging and requires ancillary testing.
Aim: The feasibility of flow cytometric immunophenotyping (FCI) along with cell block immunocytochemistry (CB-ICC) as adjunct techniques in the diagnosis of NHL as per the current World Health Organization (WHO) classification was evaluated.
Materials and Methods: All cases of suspected lymphoma underwent FNA, and the sample was triaged for light microscopic evaluation, FCI, and CB-ICC, and each case was classified as per the current WHO classification.
Results: A total of 65 cases was analyzed which included 40 B-cell, 21 T-cell, and 4 unclassifiable lymphomas. Of 61 cases, FCI alone was contributory in 74% (45/61) cases whereas CB-ICC alone was contributory in 65.5% (40/61) cases in typing the lymphoma. In 11.4% (7/61) cases, the lymphoma could not be classified by either technique. Thus, in a total of 88.5% (54/61) cases a combination of FCI and CB-ICC from FNA enabled a diagnosis of lymphoma with its subtyping.
Conclusion: Flow cytometric immunophenotyping and ICC on CBs are feasible on FNA material and are very useful in a suspected case of NHL especially when a biopsy may not be possible or feasible.
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