Cytology and histopathology have poor to fair agreement for determination of neoplastic or nonneoplastic lesions in dogs with splenic masses or nodules.

Cytology alone is unreliable for splenic lesions; histopathology confirmation is recommended.

This retrospective study evaluated the diagnostic agreement between cytology and histopathology for canine splenic masses and nodular lesions from 2014-2022. Thirty-three dogs underwent both cytologic and histopathologic evaluation within 90 days of each other. Overall agreement was achieved in 55% of cases (18/33 dogs), with 12 nonneoplastic and 6 neoplastic concordant diagnoses. When possibly neoplastic cytologic findings were included as neoplastic, agreement improved to 67% (22/33). Cytology demonstrated 71% accuracy for neoplastic lesions and 63% accuracy for nonneoplastic lesions. Disagreement occurred in 24% of cases, predominantly with cytology underestimating neoplasia. The study concluded that cytology has poor to fair agreement with histopathology for splenic masses. Notably, neoplastic cytologic diagnoses showed better concordance with histopathology than nonneoplastic diagnoses. These findings highlight the importance of histopathologic confirmation when cytologic diagnosis of splenic lesions is nonneoplastic or ambiguous, particularly given the prevalence of splenic neoplasia in dogs.

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