CYTOLOGICAL AND HISTOPATHOLOGICAL CORRELATION OF THYROID NODULES- A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

BACKGROUND Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has been the diagnostic procedure of choice for the initial screening of patients with thyroid swellings, the main goal of which is to distinguish nodules that require surgery from those which do not, in order to avoid unnecessary thyroidectomy. We wanted to determine the correlation between FNAC and histological diagnosis of solitary/multiple thyroid nodules. MATERIALS AND METHODS A prospective study was conducted by cytological examination of all solitary/multiple thyroid nodules and its correlation with histopathological diagnosis at M. S. Ramaiah Medical College and Teaching Hospital. RESULTS Out of 175 aspirations made on solitary/multiple nodules of thyroid, cytological diagnosis of non-neoplastic lesions was made in 84.5% of cases. Diagnosis of neoplastic lesions was considered in 13.2% of cases which consisted of follicular neoplasm (78.5%), Papillary carcinoma (8.6%), Hurthle cell adenoma (4.3%) and medullary carcinoma (4.3%). Histopathological study revealed sensitivity of 75.8%, specificity of 100% and accuracy of 90.54% in detecting neoplastic lesions. CONCLUSION FNAC is a simple, cost-effective and easily repeatable screening test for thyroid lesions. It can be recommended as a first line investigation in the management of thyroid nodules.