Role of fine-needle aspiration biopsy in the diagnosis of breast lumps at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

During 1990-1991, all patients seen at the surgical out-patient clinic at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) with breast lumps had a fine-needle aspiration biopsy for diagnosis prior to open biopsy. Out of 105 that had corresponding surgical biopsies, 82 aspirates were considered satisfactory. Of these, the correct diagnosis was made in 59 (71%), another 12 (21%) were called benign but the correct histologic diagnosis was not made, 7 (8.5%) were correctly called negatives. The diagnostic accuracy of this method in differentiating benign from malignant was 95% in this study.