Publication:

The reliability of fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of thyroid swelling

Background For a thyroid swelling, FNAC is the primary investigation. In most of the lesions, after excision, the Histopathology remains the same, but at times a few surprises do occur when FNAC reported benign lesions are found to be malignant on histopathology. The study aims to find reliability of FNAC in diagnosing Thyroid Lesions.

Methods This prospective study was conducted on 111 patients with thyroid swelling attending IIMSR, Medical College, Jalna during a period of two years. These patients with thyroid lesions were subjected to FNAC and then following the surgery correlated with the histopathology report.

Results Majority of the patients were in the age group of 30-50 years with female predominance. Out of 111 patients studied with FNAC, 1 sample was inadequate. Among remaining 110 cases 99 were benign thyroid lesions, 6 were malignant and 5 were highly suspicious of malignancy. HPE of thyroid specimen confirmed 101 cases as benign and 9 cases as malignant. Case in which inadequate material was obtained on FNAC was not included in study.

Conclusions FNAC is about 98.18 % reliable in diagnosing thyroid lesions. FNAC is easy, reliable and accurate investigation for all thyroid swellings.