FNAC diagnosis of tuberculosis--an eight years study at Mangalore.

1. FNAC is a very useful adjunct in the diagnosis of tuberculosis: 2. Diagnosis of tuberculosis can be made by the demonstration of epithelioid granulomas with or without caseation even in the absence of AFB. 3. Necrotic features whether acellular or accompanied by neutrophilic infiltrate are usually misdiagnosed as suppurative abscesses. Such smears however show high AFB positivity and thus the diagnosis of tuberculosis is still possible even in the absence of epithelioid granulomas. 4. Therefore all smears obtained by FNAC of suspected tuberculous lesions should be subjected to ZN staining for AFB.