International Surgery Journal | April 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 4 Page 1511 International Surgery Journal Patil MR et al. Int Surg J. 2018 Apr;5(4):1511-1513 http://www.ijsurgery.com pISSN 2349-3305 | eISSN 2349-2902 Original Research Article Diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology in thyroid swellings with histopathological correlation Mahadeo R. Patil 1 *, Sandhyarani M. Patil 2 INTRODUCTION Thyroid swellings are more common in India. Thyroid swellings can be benign as well as malignant. It is very important to differentiate malignant thyroid swellings from benign swellings preoperatively for planning of appropriate surgery and relevant patient counselling. 1 FNAC is a simple, speedy, safe, cost effective and accurate technique being used worldwide. 2 Diseases of thyroid gland especially multinodular goitre due to iodine deficiency are prevalent in India. 3 Majority of these nodules are benign and may not require surgery. Hence the main aim is to distinguish between benign and malignant thyroid swellings. For this preoperative FNAC and postoperative histopathological report was correlated to evaluate sensitivity and specificity of FNAC in diagnosis of thyroid swellings. The present study was undertaken to study epidemiological factors, clinical presentation and assess the pattern of pathological outcomes in patients with thyroid swellings coming to Department of surgery in Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical College, Kolhapur over a period of three years. The main aim is to evaluate accuracy of preoperative FNAC in thyroid swellings by correlating with postoperative histopathological report. METHODS A total of 156 patients with thyroid swellings were evaluated for a period of three years from August 2014 to July 2017. All patients were evaluated in detail including age, sex, residence, history and duration of illness, hypo, or hyperthyroid or euthyroid status, pressure symptoms, ABSTRACT Background: Thyroid swellings are common in India. It is important to differentiate malignant from benign thyroid swellings for definitive planning of appropriate surgery. This study is undertaken to study sensitivity and specificity of FNAC in diagnosis of thyroid swellings by comparing preoperative FNAC with postoperative histopathology. Methods: A total of 156 patients with thyroid swellings were evaluated for a period of three years. Pre-operatively FNAC was done and was compared with post-operative histopathology and sensitivity and specificity of FNAC was studied. Results: Thyroid swellings are more common in females. In present study of 156 thyroid swellings, 90.38% cytologies were benign while 7.05% were malignant and 2.56% were suspicious for malignancy. Sensitivity of FNAC for malignant lesions was 93.75% and specificity was 100%. Conclusions: FNAC with its very high specificity, and diagnostic accuracy approaching 100% can help to rule out malignancy in most of thyroid swellings and prevent unnecessary surgeries. Keywords: Fine needle aspiration cytology, Histopathology, Thyroid swellings 1 Department of Surgery, 2 Department of Anatomy, Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical College Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India Received: 12 February 2018 Accepted: 09 March 2018 *Correspondence: Dr. Mahadeo R. Patil, E-mail: dr.mahadeo_patil@rediffmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-2902.isj20181139