Mazhar Iqbal, Anis Subhan, Asadullah Aslam.
Frequency of tuberculosis in cervical lymphadenopathy.
J Surg Pak Jan ;15(2):107-9.

Objective To find out the frequency of tuberculosis in cervical lymphadenopathy and patients’ characteristics. Study design Descriptive study. Place & Duration of study Surgical Unit-I, Ward-3 Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Karachi, from March 2007 to March 2010. Methodology Patients of cervical lymphadenopathy above 12 years of age of both sexes were included in the study. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of lymphnode was done in all patients. Whenever necessary lymph node excision biopsy was also performed. Results A total of 220 patients with enlarged neck lymph nodes were included. Predominantly adult males were involved. Most (n 155 - 70.45%) of the patients had tuberculous lymphadenitis. In 30 patients (13.63%) reactive hyperplasia found while 25 (11.3%) had metastatic lymph nodes and 10 (4.54%) had lymphoma. Chronic non-specific lymphadenitis was seen in five (2.27%) patients. Constitutional symptoms and family history was absent in most of the patients with tuberculosis and posterior triangle of the neck was predominantly involved. Conclusions Tuberculosis was the most common clinical condition affecting the cervical lymph nodes. Laboratory findings were inconclusive in majority of the patients. Yield of diagnosis with FNAC is high.

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