Solitary nodule of the thyroid and the role of fine needle aspiration cytology in diagnosis.

In this study the pre-operative diagnostic procedures carried out on 100 patients with clinically solitary nodule of the thyroid experienced over a period of one year with special emphasis on the usefulness of fine needle aspiration biopsy cytology (FNAC) was evaluated retrospectively. All of the 100 patients underwent operation except 2 patients with FNAC diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis and 7 patients with FNAC diagnosis of colloid goitre. Histopathological study of surgically resected specimens in 91 patients revealed 67 adenomas, one subacute thyroiditis, 3 Hashimoto's thyroiditis, 8 follicular carcinomas, 11 papillary carcinomas and one medullary carcinoma. FNAC tallied in 95% of cases. It was false positive in 2 cases (one case of subacute thyroiditis and one case of Hashimoto's thyroiditis), false negative in one case (a case of follicular carcinoma) and non-diagnostic in 2 cases (2 cases of Hashimoto's thyroiditis).