Fine needle aspiration cytology--a reliable diagnostic tool in the diagnosis of thyroid gland enlargements.

To evaluate the accuracy and efficacy of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in the diagnosis of Thyroid gland enlargements. A retrospective analysis was done at Department of Pathology, Government Medical College and General Hospital, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, India. One hundred and fifty cases were included in this study. However in 10 cases aspirate was unsatisfactory and in 20 cases surgery was not performed and these cases were excluded from study. A total of 120 cases included in the final study. Detailed history, physical examination, routine investigations and other details of 120 patients were collected. FNAC with minimum two passes were performed in each case. Staining done with Haematoxylin and Eosin stain and Papanicolaou stains. FNAC smears and histopathology slides were reviewed. Among 120 cases 100 (83.66%) were reported cytologically as benign and 20 (16.66%) were malignant. But histologically 98 (81.66%) were benign and 22 (18.33%) were malignant. Commonest benign lesion of thyroid in both cytology and histology was nodular colloid goiter. Follicular adenoma was the second commonest one. Among malignant conditions papillary carcinoma was the commonest one in our FNAC samples, follicular carcinoma was the commonest in our histopathology samples. Four cases of false positive and 6 cases of false negative were observed. Sampling errors were mainly responsible for these false negative diagnoses. FNAC showed an accuracy of 96.6%, sensitivity 75%, specificity 95.83%, positive predicative value (PPV) 81.81% and negative predicative value (NPV) of 93.81%. Our results were similar to other international studies and suggest that FNAC is more specific and sensitive in detecting thyroid malignancy. Therefore its useas a reliable diagnostic test cannot be over emphasized. FNAC is an accurate and reliable diagnostic tool to evaluate the cause of Thyroid gland enlargements provided strict adherence to adequacy criteria are maintained.

Clinicopathological analysis of ovarian tumors--a study on five years samples.

Ovarian neoplasms have become increasingly important not only because of the large variety of neoplastic entities but more because they have gradually increased the mortality rate due to female genital cancers. A total of 120 cases of ovarian tumors were studied at the Department of Pathology, Konaseema Institute of Medical Sciences, Amalapuram, India, during the period of March 2005 to March 2010, to find out frequency of different histological patterns of ovarian tumors at Konaseema Region. Among 120 cases, majority 86 (71.6%) were benign, but alarming number 30 (25.0%) were malignant, remaining 4 cases were borderline. The commonest histological pattern observed in the study was epithelial tumors (61.6%). The commonest benign tumor was serous cyst adenoma, while; the commonest malignant tumors were granulosa cell tumor and endometrial carcinoma. Epithelial tumors were commonest variety of ovarian tumors followed by germ cell tumors. A relatively high number of malignancies were observed in this study.