FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY OF THYROID NODULE: DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY AND PITFALLS
Abstract
Objective : To evaluate the utility of FNAC in patients with Thyroid Nodule. Methods : Recordsof all patients treated surgically for thyroid nodule(s) at Aga Khan University Hospital from
January 2000 to December 2004 were reviewed. The patients who had pre operative FNAC as first
line of the evaluation and the final post operative histopathology report available were included in
the study. Results: 125 patients (90 female 35 male) had thyroid surgery. The cytological
diagnosis was made according to following categories: Benign, Follicular lesion, Malignant and
Inadequate sampling. Among 63 Benign cases, 57 were benign and 6 turned out to be
malignant. Among 44 cases from Follicular group, 31 were benign and 13 were malignant. Out
of 15 patients from Malignant group, 14 were malignant and 1 was benign. Among three
patients from the Inadequate sampling group, 2 turned out to be benign and one was malignant.
The overall results showed a sensitivity of 98%, specificity of 70%, and positive predictive value
of 91%, negative predictive value of 93% and diagnostic accuracy of 91%. Conclusion: We
conclude that FNAC is an invaluable and minimally invasive procedure for pre operative
assessment of patients with a thyroid nodule in our setting as well. FNAC has high sensitivity in
picking up malignancy in thyroid and also has high diagnostic accuracy in the evaluation of
thyroid nodules.
Keywords : Thyroid - FNAC - Histopathology
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