Background: Tuberculosis is a chronic pulmonary and systemic disease that predominantly occurs due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. TB is a leading health hazard globally. Tubercular lymphadenitis is the commonest type of presentation of extrapulmonary TB. The Present study was done to assess correlation between FNAC and serum ADA level in diagnosing tubercular lymphadenitis and to rule out early tuberculosis in cases reported as reactive lymphadenitis by FNAC. Materials and Methods: A two-year prospective study of 54 cases of clinically suspected tubercular lymphadenitis from December 2020 to November 2022 was done. The study subjects were first confirmed by FNAC along with AFB staining. This was followed by measurement of serum ADA levels. Results: The mean age of the patients in this study was 29 years with slight predilection for female sex. Only 24%, 13 cases present with constitutional symptoms. In cytomorphology 22 cases (40.74%) diagnosed as granulomatous lymphadenitis, while 2 cases diagnosed as reactive lymphadenitis only. Most of cases (39 cases, 72.2%) show significant increase in serum ADA level. Conclusions: FNAC along with raised serum ADA level can be considered as a reliable indicator of tubercular lymphadenitis and is fairly significant though demonstration of AFB Ziehl-Neelsen stain is gold standard.

Background: Tuberculosis is a chronic pulmonary and systemic disease that predominantly occurs due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. TB is a leading health hazard globally. Tubercular lymphadenitis is the commonest type of presentation of extrapulmonary TB. The Present study was done to assess correlation between FNAC and serum ADA level in diagnosing tubercular lymphadenitis and to rule out early tuberculosis in cases reported as reactive lymphadenitis by FNAC. Materials and Methods: A two-year prospective study of 54 cases of clinically suspected tubercular lymphadenitis from December 2020 to November 2022 was done. The study subjects were first confirmed by FNAC along with AFB staining. This was followed by measurement of serum ADA levels. Results: The mean age of the patients in this study was 29 years with slight predilection for female sex. Only 24%, 13 cases present with constitutional symptoms. In cytomorphology 22 cases (40.74%) diagnosed as granulomatous lymphadenitis, while 2 cases diagnosed as reactive lymphadenitis only. Most of cases (39 cases, 72.2%) show significant increase in serum ADA level. Conclusions: FNAC along with raised serum ADA level can be considered as a reliable indicator of tubercular lymphadenitis and is fairly significant though demonstration of AFB Ziehl-Neelsen stain is gold standard.