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Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA)

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Pathology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Pathology ((EP))

  • 35 Accesses

Synonyms

Aspirative cytology; Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB); Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC)

Definition

Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a procedure consisting in aspirate single cells or fragments of cells or tissues with a needle (attached or not to a syringe) from a lump in the human body or from liquid that has formed in human cavities (the most common of which are pleural, pericardial, and abdominal spaces).

Principle

The main goal of FNA is to obtain a diagnosis in case of a lump in the human body or from liquid aspired from body cavities. The diagnosis is obtained looking under a microscope the aspired materials, usually composed of cells, fragments of cells, or tissues, and the materials are classified into diagnostic categories. The diagnostic categories used are five: nondiagnostic or unsatisfactory, benign, atypical, suspicious for malignancy, and malignant. To be placed in one of these categories, the aspired material must show specific cytomorphological...

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References and Further Reading

  • Cibas, E. S., & Ali, Z. A. (2017). The 2017 Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology. Journal of the American Society of Cytopathology, 6(6), 217–222.

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  • Clark, D. P., & Faquin, W. C. (2005). Thyroid cytopathology. In D. L. Rosenthal (Ed.), Essential cytopathology series. New York: Springer.

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  • Pusztaszeri, M., Rossi, E. D., Baloch, Z. W., & Faquin, W. C. (2019). Salivary gland fine needle aspiration and introduction of the Milan reporting system. Advances in Anatomic Pathology, 26(2), 84–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roskell, D. E., & Buley, I. D. (2004). Fine needle aspiration cytology in cancer diagnosis. BMJ, 329, 244–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Synlab Pathology, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Massimo Bongiovanni

Authors
  1. Massimo Bongiovanni
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Massimo Bongiovanni .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. NIJMEGEN, The Netherlands

    J.H.J.M. van Krieken

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Bongiovanni, M. (2020). Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA). In: van Krieken, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_5071-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_5071-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28845-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28845-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

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