Role of FNAC in the Evaluation of Solitary Cold Thyroid Nodule

Abstract

Background: Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) provides diagnostic information as to the nature of a solitary cold thyroid nodule. Objective: This study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of FNAC as a diagnostic method of malignancy in solitary cold thyroid nodule. Methodology: This cross sectional study was carried out among 40 cases of solitary cold thyroid nodule who were admitted in the Department Surgery and ENT of DMCH during period of January 2006 to December 2007. This study was conducted using convient type of non-probability sampling technique Data were collected by face to face interview, clinical examination and finding of both cytological and histological examination. Result: The study revealed that the mean age of the patients was 35.8± 2.36 year with female to male ratio 2.6:1. For all the patients, FNAC were done preoperatively and after definitive surgery histopathology were done for confirmed diagnosis and results of FNAC were compared with histopathology reports. 30 cases were diagnosed as benign and 10 case diagnosed as malignant cold thyroid solitary nodules among 40 cases. In this study, the sensitivity of FNAC was 80% for the presence of malignancy and specificity 96.7% for the absence of malignancy in solitary cold thyroid nodules. The positive predictive value was 88.9% and negative predictive value was 92.5% and diagnostic accuracy was 92.5%. Conclusion: FNAC can be used as a diagnostic method for the evaluation of malignancy as well as in the management of solitary cold thyroid nodule which has reasonable sensitivity and specificity. Finally, it is a quick, cost effective procedure and has excellent patient compliance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jssmc.v4i1.11997 J Shaheed Suhrawardy Med Coll, 2012;4(1):15-17