Diagnostic Accuracy of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) versus Histopathology in Thyroid lesions.

Dr. Sejalkumari M  Ninama; Dr. Meeta Nanavati

Volume : III, Issue : IX, September - 2014

Diagnostic Accuracy of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) versus Histopathology in Thyroid lesions.

Dr. Sejalkumari M Ninama, Dr. Meeta Nanavati

Abstract :

Background: Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is minimally invasive, cost effective and considered gold standard test for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Aims and objectives: An aim of our study was to co–relate the preoperative FNAC findings with histopathology of post–operative specimens and diagnostic pitfalls of the FNAC. Methods and materials: A retrospective study of 137 cases was done at pathology department; B J Medical college Ahmedabad from January–2012 to November 2013. The cases for which both cytological and histological diagnosis were available was selected. Fine needle aspiration results were compared with histological diagnosis following thyroid operation. Observation and Results: Cytological diagnosis showed benign lesion in 105 patients (76.6%) and malignant in 12 patients (8.7%). Histopathological findings showed benign lesion in 119 specimen (86.8%) and malignant in 18 patients (13.1%). Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of our study to diagnose malignant lesions were 75%, 98.3% and 94.5% respectively. Conclusion: FNAC has evolved as an accurate, sensitive and specific tool for the initial screening of thyroid patients and reduced the need of un– necessary surgeries. However histopathological diagnosis is more confirmatory