Impact of Bethesda System of Reporting for Thyroid Cytopathology

Abstract

ABSTRACTFNAC though considered the gold standard diagnostic test in the evaluation of a thyroid nodule, has many issues regarding the terminologies and interpretation. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) hosted the NCI Thyroid Fine needle Aspiration State of the Science Conference in 2007, which acknowledged the importance of developing a uniform terminology for reporting thyroid FNA results to facilitate effective communication among cytopathologists, endocrinologist, surgeons, radiologists and other healthcare providers. The NCI Conference concluded the terminology and morphologic criteria which formed the framework for The Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology (TBSRTC). It is a 6 tiered ‘The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology’ (TBSRTC) for unifying the terminology and morphologic criteria along with the corresponding risk of malignancy. Bethesda also offers management approach for all the categories. Bethesda system is presently widely accepted in western countries and is being introduced in rest of the world. This system of reporting undoubtedly represents a major step toward standardization, reproducibility and ultimately improvement in clinical significance, usefulness and predictive value of thyroid FNAC. The problems faced by the cytopathologist while implementing Bethesda during reporting are centred on AUS/FLUS category. The heterogeneity of this low-risk category leads to significant variability in its reported percentage as well as reported rate of malignancy.How to cite this articleDhume V, Kavishwar V. Impact of Bethesda System of Reporting for Thyroid Cytopathology. Int J Otorhinolaryngol Clin 2014;6(1):15-22.