The Precision of Ultrasonography and Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in the Evaluation of Thyroid Nodules in Correlation with Histopathology: A Retrospective Study

Background and Objectives: The incidence of palpable thyroid nodules is approximately 4%–7% in the population.  Most thyroid nodules are benign in nature but Malignancy should be ruled out, which is quite less frequent. In such cases, a reliable diagnostic modality to evaluate and differentiate the Malignant thyroid nodules is required. This retrospective study was conducted with the objective to evaluate the accuracy of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) and Ultrasonography (USG) for diagnosis of euthyroid nodules & to differentiate Malignant thyroid nodules from the benign nodules in comparison to histopathological diagnosis. Materials and Methodology: It's a retrospective study that included 132 patients who underwent USG and FNAC of thyroid nodules.  Only patients with available histopathology were included in the study. The results of USG, FNAC were evaluated and correlated with histopathology report considered as the final diagnosis. Results: Out of 132 patients, USG showed benign lesions in 107(81.06%)  patients, out of which histopathology showed benign lesions in 103 (96.26%) patients and Malignant lesions in 4 (3.74%) patients. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), false-positive rate, false-negative rate and accuracy of USG of thyroid lesions were 78.95%, 91.15%, 60%, 96.26%, 8.85%, 21.05%, 89.39% respectively