ABSTRACT
Background: Diseases of the thyroid continue to be a common clinical problem having a prevalence rate of 4–7% in thegeneral population. It affects patients in all age groups and the treatment modalities include either a conservative managementor a surgical excision of the gland. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a minimally invasive, accurate diagnostic toolwhich can differentiate neoplastic from non-neoplastic lesions and, hence, reduces the number of unnecessary thyroidectomy.Ultrasonography (USG) is the most common and the most useful way to image the thyroid gland and its pathology. The studywas conducted with the objective of evaluating the applicability of Doppler USG in diagnosing thyroid pathologies, establishedits superiority over clinical palpation, and correlated histopathologically using FNAC. The type of thyroidectomy can be plannedbased on the type of the thyroid swelling and thereby preventing the surgical complications. Thyroid gland is afflicted by variouspathologies ranging from diffuse enlargement (goiter) to nodular lesions, thyroiditis, and malignancies.Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study done on 98 patients that came to the outpatient department of theDepartment of Radiodiagnosis of Sukh Sagar Medical College, Jabalpur, from August 2018 to May 2019. All the patients withthyroid swelling/mass/enlargement were studied under color Doppler USG and then FNAC was performed.Results: The present study had a total of 98 cases. Cytologic diagnosis was classified under benign, malignant, inconclusive,suspicious, and malignant categories. Among 98 cases, 86 cases were non-neoplastic and 12 were neoplastic. The ratio ofnon-neoplastic to neoplastic is 7.16:1. Majority of the patients were females in the age group of 41–60 years. USG was foundto be more sensitive than clinical palpation. Differences were found when the results of USG were correlated with FNAC.Conclusion: Ultrasound was found to be more reliable than palpation. The addition of color flow imaging has added valueto the prediction of thyroid, but definitive diagnosis can be reached only with FNAC/biopsy. Multinodular goiter was the mostcommon non-neoplastic lesion and papillary carcinoma was the most common neoplastic lesion. Thus, fine-needle aspirationis a very useful and indispensable test in the diagnosis of thyroid lesions.