role of radionuclide scanning, songraphy and fine needle aspiration cytology in palpable throid nodule diagnosis

ABSTRACT

One hundred consecutive patients with palpable thyroid nodules were enrolled in this study at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. There were 19 males and 81 females. Age range was between 7-66 years. Most of the lesions were located in the right lobe of thyroid. 93 thyroids had a single nodule on physical examination. 99 patients had sonography. 74 of them had single and 18 had multiple nodules and one showed no nodule. In 80 cases thyroid scan was performed. In 6 patients despite a palpable thyroid nodule, scan was considered normal. 69 patients had cold nodule which was cystic in 24 cases. Fine needle aspiration [FNA] and cytology were done in all of the patients. In 4 patients FNA was considered malignant and in 10 patients it was suspicious to malignancy. 9 patients had surgery and 5 had cancer. According to the present study, FNA is the most accurate tool to select the malignant nodules and to decide on the most suitable surgical intervention