Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a useful procedure in the assessment of thyroid swellings. This retrospective study was done at King Abdul-Aziz University hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh. The objectives of this study were: to determine the cytological pattern of thyroid lesions; to determine the diagnostic accuracy of FNAC of thyroid lesions; to compare the results with data published in literature; and to stress on the importance of using standardised cytological reporting system for thyroid FNAC. This retrospective study period was from January 2010 to December 2012. During this period 81 patients with thyroid lesions underwent FNAC. Results of the FNAC were grouped according to Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology.
The results were as follows:
I) 1.2% patient’s results were not satisfactory
II) 59% patients had benign lumps
III) 14.8% patients had follicular lesion of undetermined significance
IV) 7.4% patients had follicular neoplasm
V) 2.4% patients had results suspicious for malignancy
VI) 14.8% patients had malignancy.
In this study FNAC findings, in relation to histopathological diagnosis, showed accuracy rate of 95% with a sensitivity rate of 80% and specificity of 100%. Authors state that the implementation of a standardised cytological reporting system with defined diagnostic categories will result in improved understanding of FNAC results and this will help in the management of thyroid neoplasm.
