Initially, the data of the study members were collected and recorded. Then the clinical profile was recorded, followed by the examination. All these were documented in the study proforma. Then the participants were proceeded for FNAC as per the standard reports. [6] This was carried using a 22 to 24 gauge disposable ten cc syringe. Smear preparation was done at the bedside, fixed in 95% Ethyl alcohol. The sears were stained with H & E, Giemsa techniques. If required, Ziehl Neelsen (ZN) technique was also used to find acid-fast bacilli (AFB). After staining, the smears were air-dried and examined under a microscope.

The lesions were reported with the help of clinical history. Cellularity was assessed as high, moderate, and low. The cytomorphological diagnosis was categorized as reactive, tuberculous, acute suppurative, chronic nonspecific, metastatic and lymphoma. Tuberculous LNs were further divided into three groups; epithelioid granuloma without necrosis were included in group1, epithelioid granulomas with necrosis in group 2 and necrosis without epithelioid granulomas were categorized in group 3.

Ethical consideration and permission: The study protocol was approved by the institutional ethics committee. Informed consent was taken from all the participants.

Statistical analysis: SPSS 21.0 was used for the study of the data. Microsoft word and Excel were used to generate tables.

were diagnosed to be group 1, 30 (60%) were group 2, and 12 (24%) were group 3 and grading was carried as per the standard guidelines (Fig 1 and 2). Out of the 22 (13.7%) malignant cases, metastasis was seen in 15 (10.55%) and lymphoma in 7 (4.34%). Among the lymphomas, there was 1 case was Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL), and the remaining were non-Hodgkins.

Figure 1: TB well-formed granuloma with necrosis H&E stain (40 X).

Figure 2: AFB in ZN stained smear (100X).

Figure 3: Mets SCC dyscohesive cells with nuclear atypia H&E stain (40X).

Amita S et al. [8], Hemalatha A et al. [9] and Chaitra S et al. [10]. In this research, there was a decline in the infective etiology of LA, especially in the geriatric age group.  Hemalatha A et al. [9]. also reported a similar viewpoint. Female predominance was also observed in the literature. This was in contrast to the available literature. [9, 10]. But we were unable to report the cause for this. 

When the LN size was considered, it was <2cm in 36.02% (58) members, varied between 2 to 3 cms in 42.2% (68) and > 3 cm in 38 (23.6%) members.  This was similar to the data published by Patel A et al. [8]; these investigators reported that 10 out of 22 participants LNs were diagnosed to be > 3 cm.

In this report, the cervical region was identified to be the most common (108; 67%), followed by submandibular and inguinal, 16 (9.9%) each, respectively (Table 2) in a report by Ashwini H N et al. [11]. LA was reported to be 23.8% in the cervical area, 19.3% in the Axillary region, 12.3% in the submandibular area and 11.5% in the inguinal area. Vatsala S et al. [2]. reported that 63.48% of cervical LA followed by submandibular (4.78%), supraclavicular (4.78%), axillary (8.26%) and inguinal (3.48%). Similar findings were reported by Mehdi G et al. [1] Amita S Patel et al. [8] and Patro P et al. [12].

Lesion wise, TB (29.8%; 50) was found to be the most common etiological agent in this study, followed by reactive (24.8%; 40) and granulomatous (13.6%; 13) lymphadenitis (Table 3). India is one of the endemic countries of TB. [13]. Illiteracy, low socioeconomic status, overcrowding, and so on are the common causes. But in the available literature, there is a difference in the incidence of etiology for the LA. Vatsala S et al. [2], Vimal S et al. [3] and Chaitra et al. [10] reported that reactive LA is the common etiology. At the same time, Patel S A et al. [8], Ashwini et al. [11] reported that TB was the common cause for LA. 

Totally, in this research, 86.33% benign infective cytomorphological lesions were reported, whereas this was 96.9% as per Ashwini et al. [11] report. The lesions were classified as per Das et al. [14] research. The authors considered the cellular components as part of the spectrum of the natural history of disease progression based on the patient's immunity. Among the TB

done along with immune histochemistry to confirm these cases. Lymphoma was seen in the age group of more than 4^th decade, in the cervical region. In the >50years age group, LA must be approached with more suspicion and clinical correlation and radiological evaluation. Chaitra et al. [10] recorded 14.6% lymphoma and argued that the diagnosis was based mainly on a finding of a monomorphic population of lymphoid cells and that FNAC was diagnostic more in HL than NHL. Our study correlated with that of the study reported by Prabhakar et al. [12] and Rajarikam et al. [16].