Sweta Verma1, Mita Saha Dutta Chowdhury2, Souradeep Ray3, Ruma Guha4
BACKGROUND
Thyroid cancer has the most rapidly increasing incidence of all major cancers in
India. The overall prevalence of thyroid malignancy is approximately 1 - 5 % of all
cancers in women and less than 2 % in men. Thyroid nodules are a common
clinical finding and have a reported prevalence of 4 – 7 % in the general
population. The vast majority of these nodules are non-neoplastic or benign and
the risk of malignancy varies from 5 to 10 %. Fine needle aspiration cytology
(FNAC) is an efficient and reliable means for the evaluation of thyroid nodules. A
key challenge for clinicians is to choose which thyroid nodule is to be investigated
further and treated. Early detection and treatment of malignant thyroid nodules is
associated with excellent outcomes. The aim of our study is to compare and
correlate between fine needle aspiration cytology and histopathology of resected
specimen and to determine the diagnostic accuracy of TBSRTC (The Bethesda
System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology) in thyroid nodule.
METHODS
This is a cross sectional validation study conducted in a tertiary care hospital (R.G.
Kar Medical College) of Kolkata to find the sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic
accuracy of TBSRTC in evaluation of thyroid nodule.
RESULTS
We have observed that TBSRTC is highly sensitive and specific in stratifying the
malignancy risk of thyroid nodule.
CONCLUSIONS
It aids the clinician to choose the thyroid nodules which require further evaluation
and intervention. It also guides the clinician to decide the operability of thyroid
nodule. TBSRTC is highly accurate and is highly specific in stratifying the risk of
malignancy of thyroid nodule.
