To differentiate benign from malignant thyroid nodule comparison of sonography with FNAC findings

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of sonography and Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC). Methodology: This follow-up study was approved by review board and conducted at Endocrine Clinic and Radiology Department of Imam Reza, Kermanshah. The patients were diagnosed to have thyroid nodule examined by FNA and Sonography suspicious malignant cases underwent surgery. Results were entered in SPSS 11.5 chi-Square and Fisher exact test applied to compare malignant and benign nodule characters. Results: In this study 144 patients were examined and 14 cases (9.7%) had malignant nodule. Most of malignant nodules were single (p=0.001), solid (p < 0.001), hypo-echo (p=0.001), with irregular margins (p < 0.001) and with calcification (p=0.041). There was no significant relationship between malignancy and nodule size of larger than 15 mm (p=0.395). Compared with surgery, FNA sensitivity and specificity were calculated as 92.8% and 100% respectively. Conclusion: Based on the result of this study, thyroid nodule size must not be considered as a criterion for malignancy and thyroid nodules of any size must be suspected as malignant. Important criteria for malignancy include irregular edges, being solid, hypoechogenicity and being a single nodule respectively. Compared with Surgery, FNA Sensitivity and specificity were calculated as 92.8% and 100% respectively.

Multidetector computed tomography analysis of benign and malignant nodules in patients with chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis

“…The present findings differed from that of a previous study, which concluded that on diameter comparison, no significant association was found between malignancy and a nodule size of >15 mm using FNAB (20). The higher incidence of microcarcinoma in the present study and timely surgery on suspected carcinomas may contribute to the difference in conclusions.…”

Diagnostic accuracy of preoperative palpation- versus ultrasound-guided thyroid fine needle aspiration cytology: an observational study

“…In line with our findings, earlier studies showed a significant correlation between FNA cytology findings of suspicious malignancy and the final diagnosis [13,31]. Therefore, US-FNA findings of suspicious malignancy could be utilized for considering the need and extent of surgical intervention [32].…”

Diagnostic Accuracy of Ultrasonography in Differentiating Benign and Malignant Thyroid Nodules Using Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology as the Reference Standard

“…They are found in 4%-8% of adults by means of palpation, in 10%-41% by means of US (Carroll et al, 1982;Brander et al, 1991;Bruneton et al, 1994;Wiest et al, 1998;Nam-Goong et al, 2004;Rahimi et al, 2013) and in 50% by means of pathologic examination at autopsy. The prevalence of thyroid nodules increases with age.…”