Diagnostic accuracy of FNAC in cases of thyroid nodules while taking histopathology as gold standard

Aim: to find out the diagnostic accuracy of fnac in cases of thyroid nodules while taking histopathology as gold standard. methods: this cross sectional study was conducted at department of surgery,nishtar hospital,multan from august 2015 to february 2016. total 100 patients with clinically palpable solitary thyroid nodules either male or female having age from 16-60 years were selected. patient with confirmed diagnosis other than thyroid nodule and patients with advanced fixed tumor were excluded from the study. results: mean age of the patients was 38±12.34 years. male patients were 45(45%) and female patients were 55(55%). sensitivity rate was 96.39% and specificity was 76.47%. positive predictive value was 95.24% and negative predictive value was 81.25%. true positive was 80(80%),false positive was 4(4%),false negative 3 (3%) and true negative 13(13%). conclusion: the sensitivity,specificity and diagnostic accuracy of fna were high,thus confirming the important role of fine needle aspiration cytology as the initial diagnostic utility in management of thyroid nodules. false negativity due to sampling error may be reduced by incorporating other clinical parameters as index of suspicion of malignancy and utilizing radiology-guided aspiration. © 2016,lahore medical and dental college. all rights reserved.