Fine-needle aspiration biopsy of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS): experience in an outpatient clinic.

One hundred twenty-one fine-needle aspiration biopsies of lymph nodes were done on 113 men followed in the AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) Outpatient Clinic of the San Francisco General Hospital. The cytologic diagnoses on these 121 biopsies included 60 (50%) hyperplasias, 24 (20%) non-Hodgkin lymphomas, 21 (17%) mycobacterial infections, 12 (10%) cases of Kaposi sarcoma, and 1 each of Hodgkin disease, giant cell carcinoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. No false-positive results occurred in this series, but five false-negative results were seen in the 10 patients with hyperplasia on fine-needle aspiration biopsy specimens who subsequently had open surgical biopsy. From our experience, we believe fine-needle aspiration biopsy is a useful, cost-effective initial method to evaluate lymphadenopathy in patients seen at an AIDS outpatient clinic.