Role of fnac in goiter

Goitre is quite a common clinical presentation in surgical practice. Fine needle aspiration cytology is a well established first line diagnostic test for evaluation of goitre and is a more useful investigation than others like ultrasonography, thyroid function tests and serological studies. Materials and methods: Prospective study of 50 cases of goitre who underwent FNAC during period Jan 2017- Dec 2017. The results of Fine needle aspiration cytology and histopathology were compared and sensitivity and specificity were studied. Results: The results were that majority of patients were having colloid goitre 62%, followed by multi nodular goitre (20%), thyroiditis 12%,papillary carcinoma 4% and anapaestic carcinoma 2%. Carcinoma among patients was diagnosed in 3 patients by FNAC while by histopathology among 5 patients. Also, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive vale (NPV) of FNAC are 97%,71%,95.7% and 83.3% respectively. Conclusion: FNAC is base line investigation in case goiter & appears to be reliable and best used in conjugation with thyroid function test and ultra sonography