Fine needle aspiration cytology of thyroid lesions with histopathological correlation

Abstract

Background: Thyroid is a frequent site of disease in human body. Fine needle aspiration cytology is a rapid, efficient, inexpensive and safe diagnostic method in these cases. FNAC has some limitations, particularly limited to representatives of samples and exact typing of benign and malignant neoplastic lesions. Thus, FNAC alone may not give a confirmative diagnosis regarding few thyroid lesions. Hence, histopathological study has been the standard technique for the diagnosis of thyroid lesions. Objectives: 1)To study the cytomorphological features in various thyroid lesions and to provide accurate diagnosis 2)To correlate the cytological features with histopathological study of all surgically removed thyroid lesions whenever possible 3)To evaluate sensitivity and specificity of FNAC of thyroid lesions Methodology: In the present study, 100 cases of thyroid FNA's, have been analysed and cyohistopathological correlation has been interpreted wherever available. Results: In the present study sensitivity of FNAC was 77%, specificity 98.3% , positive predictive value-87.5%,negative predictive value-96.7%,false positive error rate-1.4%, false negative error rate-2.8% and diagnostic accuracy 95.7%.