EFFICACY OF NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY WITH OR WITHOUT ULTRASONOGRAPHY GUIDANCE IN EVALUATION OF THYROID NODULE AT A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE OF NEPAL

Abstract

Objectives: To compare the diagnostic efficacy of conventional FNAC with USG guided FNAC in the evaluation of patients with a thyroid nodule.

Materials and methods: The study was carried out at ENT Head and Neck Surgery Department of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, a tertiary carecentre of Nepal and the study period was from June 2017 to November 2018. We retrospectively reviewed all the medical records of subjectspresenting with a solitary thyroid nodule that underwent FNAC, had a record of all required information and available final histopathology report. They were randomly recruited 40 in each group of conventional FNAC (cFNAC) and USG guided FNAC (USG-FNAC).

Results: The majority of the patients were middle-aged female. The sensitivity of USG-FNAC was 100% and it was 64.7% of conventional FNAC. The specificity was similar in both groups with 69.56% in conventional and 66.7% in the USG guided FNAC group. The accuracy in conventional FNAC was 67.5% and in USG guided FNAC group was 82.5%.

Conclusion: The sensitivity and accuracy of USG guided FNAC was higher than conventional FNAC but the specificity was similar in both groups.So, the use of USG guided FNAC in evaluating solitary thyroid nodule can reduce the chances of missing the diseased cases.

Keywords: Diagnostic accuracy, Ultrasonography guided., Fine needle aspiration cytology, Thyroid nodule