@article {19157, title = {Diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology in thyroid lesions}, journal = {Journal of Egyptian National Cancer Institute}, volume = {24}, year = {2012}, pages = {63-70}, abstract = {

Purpose: Evaluation of the accuracy of FNAC in the preoperative diagnosis of different thyroid lesions.
Patients and methods: This is a retrospective study of 296 diagnosed cases of thyroid nodules referred to cytology unit, pathology department, NCI, who underwent preoperative cytologic diagnosis. The results were categorized into: insufficient for diagnosis, benign, atypical follicular lesion of undetermined significance, follicular neoplasm, suspicious for malignancy, and malignant sampling according to the recent Bethesda classification. The final histologic diagnosis and/ or follow up ultrasonography assessment for non-neoplastic lesions were considered the gold standard.
Results: The study included 296 cases presented with thyroid nodules who underwent preoperative diagnostic thyroid FNAC. Male to female ratio was 5.2:1, and the median age was 44 years. 98 cases (33.1\%) were diagnosed as benign, 40 cases (13.5\%) as follicular lesion of undetermined significance, 49 cases (16.5\%) as follicular neoplasm, 30 cases (10.1\%) as suspicious for malignancy, 58 cases (19.5\%) as malignant, and 21 cases (7.1\%) as unsatisfactory. Nodular hyperplasia represented the majority of benign cases (89.8\%), while papillary carcinoma was the most frequent malignant lesion (72.4\%). Cytologic diagnoses were compared with their corresponding final histologic ones. FNAC achieved a sensitivity of 92.8, specificity of 94.2\%, positive predictive value of 94.9\%, negative predictive value of 91.8\%, false positive rate of 7.2\%, false negative rate of 5.8\%, and a total accuracy of 93.6\%.
Conclusion: FNA cytology is a sensitive, specific, and accurate initial diagnostic test for the preoperative evaluation of patients with thyroid swellings.

}, author = {E.A.Sinna and N. Ezzat} }