{"references": ["1. Engzell V,Franzen S, Zajicek J. Aspiration biopsy of tumors of the neck: 11 Cytologic findings in 13 cases of carotid tumors. Acta Cytol 1971;15:25-30.", "2. Kapoor R, Saha MM, Das DK, Gupta AK, Tyagi S. Carotid body tumor initially diagnosed by fine needle aspiration cytology [letter to editor]. Acta Cytol 1989;33:682-83.", "3. Gita Jayaram, Subashiny Kaliaperumal, Gyana Kumar. Bilateral Carotid Body Tumor Diagnosed on Cytology. Acta Cytol 2005;49(6):690-92.", "4. Hood IC, Quizilbash AH, Young JEM, Archibald SD. Fine needle aspiration biopsy of paragangliomas. Cytologic, light microscopic and ultrastructural studies of three cases. Acta Cytol 1983;27:651-7.", "5. Jacobs DM, Waismon J. Cervical paraganglioma with intranuclear vacuoles in a fine needle aspirate. Acta Cytol 1987;31:29-32.", "6. Gonzalez-Campora R, Otal Salaverri C, Panea Flores P, Lerma-Puertas E, Galera-Davidson H. Fine needle aspiration of paraganglionic tumors. Acta Cytol 1988;32:386-390.", "7. Chen LT, Hwang WS. Fine needle aspiration of carotid body paraganglioma [letter to editor]. Acta Cytol 1989; 33:681-2.", "8. Mincione G, Urso C. Fine needle aspiration cytologic findings in a case of carotid body paraganglioma (chemodectoma)[letter to editor]. Acta Cytol 1989;33: 679-681.", "9. Paul Zaharopoulos. Diagnostic challenges in the fineneedle aspiration diagnosis of carotid body paragangliomas: Report of two cases Diagnostic Cytopathology 2000;23: 202-7", "10. Fleming MV, Oertel YC, Rodriguez ER, Fidler WJ. Fine needle aspiration of six carotid body paragangliomas. Diagnostic Cytopathology 1993;9:510-15.", "11. Lack EE, Cubilla AL, Woodruff JM, Farr HW. Paragangliomas of the head and neck region. A clinical study of 69 patients. Cancer 1977;39:397-409.", "12. Kapila K, Tewari MC, Verma K. Paragangliomas-a diagnostic dilemma on fine needle aspirates. Indi J Cancer 1993;30:152-57.", "13. Das DK, Gupta AK, Chowdhary V, Satsangi DK, Tyagi S, Mohan JC, Khan VA, Malhotra V. Fine-needle aspiration diagnosis of carotid body tumor: report of a case and review of experience with cytologic features in four cases. Diagnostic Cytopathology 1997;17:143- 47.", "14. Jashnani KD, Patil RD, Balsarkar DJ. Loose cell clusters with vascular coats: Zellballen pattern of paraganglioma on cytology. J Cytol 2013;30:278-9.", "15. Majumdar A, Jana A, Jana A, Biswas S. Carotid body paraganglioma fine-needle aspiration cytology. J Medin the Trop 2014;16:45-46."]}

This is a case of carotid body paraganglioma diagnosed on fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology prior to other diagnostic work up. A lateral neck mass with a long duration, the hemorrhagic nature of the aspirate and the cytological features; some of which were reminiscent of an endocrine neoplasm are the factors that helped in suggesting the possibility of paraganglioma which was later confirmed in histopathology. We report this case to highlight two points: 1) the importance of FNAC in diagnosing such lesions in clinically obscure cases. 2) In FNAC of neck lesions, if paraganglioma is suspected, preparation of a cell block along with immunohistochemistry in cases wherever possible will prove useful for the definitive diagnosis of paraganglioma.