Publication:

Evaluation of thyroid nodule in pediatric population in a tertiary care hospital

Background Thyroid nodules are commonly present in adult population but are rare in pediatric age group. Inspite of being rare, thyroid nodule have a higher chance of malignancy in children. Thus, pediatric patients presenting with thyroid nodule found clinically or incidentally should be worked up to rule out any possibility of malignancy. The besthesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology (TBSRTC) is widely used for reporting in adults. The present study aims to use TBSRTC for pediatric thyroid lesions reporting.

Methods All pediatric patients with age ≤ 18 years presenting with thyroid nodule during January 2018 to April 2019 were included in the study, fine needle aspiration (FNA) was done and findings were compared with histology. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 18.

Results 42 pediatric patient were included in the study, out of which 2.38% were malignant and suspicious for nmalignant each and 83% were benign.

Conclusion TBSRTC is quite sensitive and specific reporting guideline in pediatric population as in adult population with 100% accuracy in diagnosing benign and malignant cases. This is useful for avoiding unnecessary surgeries.