Cysticercosis is a systemic parasitic disease caused by the larval stage of Taenia solium. It is the most common parasitic disease worldwide. Fine needle aspiration cytology plays an important role in prompt recognition of this disease.
To study the role of FNAC in the diagnosis of cysticercosis.
This study included 26 patients with parasitic infestation who presented with palpable subcutaneous and intramuscular nodules at different sites. Their clinical presentation and fine needle aspiration cytomorphological features were studied.
The age range of these patients was 7-60 years. Majority of the patients were males. The most commonly affected site was head and neck followed by upper extremity. Most of the cases were clinically misdiagnosed as lipomas, neurofibromas, lymphadenitis, epidermal inclusion cyst, sialadenitis, and soft tissue tumors. The aspirate was clear fluid in maximum number of cases. All the cases revealed fragments of bladder wall with associated granulomas in seven cases and giant cells in four cases. However, none of the case revealed hooklets.
FNAC is a simple, minimally invasive, low-cost, outpatient diagnostic technique for the diagnosis of cysticercosis as cytological diagnosis is quite clear where the actual parasitic structures are identified in the smear.

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