Sharath Chandra Keshapaga1, Tiwari Sundari Devi2, Byrapuram Vijaya Nirmala3, Durga Hari Prasanna Kumar Kalla4
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.
