English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Thyroid nodules are common and occur in 4 % - 7 % of the general population. Diseases of the thyroid are of great importance because they are most amenable to medical or surgical management. The benefit of thyroid fine needle aspiration (FNA) derives in large part from the ability to make a reliably benign interpretation that avoids unnecessary surgery. A uniform reporting system for thyroid FNA will facilitate effective communication among cytopathologist and the referring physician and allow easy and reliable sharing of data from different laboratories for national and international collaborative studies. For uniformity of reporting cytological smears “The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology” was recommended and the smears were divided into 6 diagnostic categories. We wanted to know the age and sex distribution and prevalence of various thyroid lesions as per Bethesda diagnostic criteria. We wanted to study the cytological and morphological features of thyroid lesions by fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC). METHODS The present study is a prospective type of descriptive study, carried out from January 2016 to December 2017 at Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam. A total of 1291 cases were evaluated and classified according to Bethesda system of cytopathology. FNAC was done and the smears were immediately fixed in isopropyl alcohol and stained with haematoxylin and eosin. RESULTS In the present study a total of 1291 cases was analysed out of which 1193 were benign, 13 were AFLUS, 32 were follicular neoplasms, 10 were suspicious of malignancies and 36 malignant. All the lesions were classified as per Bethesda diagnostic criteria. CONCLUSIONS FNAC is a simple and cost-effective procedure which guides the clinical practitioner to choose the right form of treatment for the patient subsequently avoiding unnecessary surgery and ensuing morbidity. KEYWORDS Thyroid, Cytopathology, FNAC, Bethesda, Follicular Neoplasm, Benign, Malignant