Role of fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of palpable thyroid lesions.

Fine needle aspiration cytology is now recommended as the first choice for the evaluation of palpable thyroid nodules. A total of 170 fine needle aspirates of thyroid were evaluated in which the subsequent biopsy were also available for histopathological examination. The age ranged from 16 to 70 years. The cytological diagnosis were compared with the histological results which revealed the sensitivity of 61.90% and 80.95%, the specificity of 99.31% and 76.55%, positive predictive value of 92.86% and 33.33%, negative predictive value of 94.74% and 96.52% and accuracy index of 94.58% and 77.11% were found, when considering suspicious cases alternatively as positives and negatives. Similar statistics from other series of studies revealed almost same results in which cytological results of thyroid lesions were compared with histological results. This suggests that FNAC is an effective and accurate technique for the diagnosis and further management of palpable thyroid nodules.