Fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of palpable thyroid lesions

ABSTRACT

Fine needle aspiration cytology [FNAC] has gained acceptance and is being widely used in the diagnosis of palpable thyroid lesions. At our institution we regularly started this procedure in June, 1992. Till May 1995, 312 patients of palpable thyroid lesions were subjected to FNAC. On cytological evaluation there were 234 [75%] cases diagnosed as non neoplastic including 6[1.92%] cases of thyroiditis. Twenty eight [8.97%] were positive for malignancy, 24 [7.69%] labelled as suspect neoplastic, and for 26 [8.33%] cases the aspirates were unsatisfactory. Surgical specimens were available in 95 cases for histological examination and comparison with cytological diagnosis. The statistical analysis revealed sensitivity of 95%, a specificity of 100% and an accuracy of 98.57%. We consider FNAC of palpable thyroid lesions, as a simple safe, well tolerated, useful and a rapid diagnostic procedure