Faisal Ghani Siddiqui.
The Role of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in the Diagnosis of Clinically Solitary Thyroid Nodule.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;10(10):365-7.

A prospective study of 106 patients with clinically solitary thyroid nodules was carried out over a period of 4 years from December, 1991 to December, 1995 at Liaquat Medical College Hospital, Jamshoro and other private hospitals in Hyderabad with the objective to assess the efficacy of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in the diagnosis of solitary thyroid nodule. FNAC was performed in all the patients and results were analyzed against the final histopathology of the specimens. Seven patients, not operated in this series, had benign cysts that were aspirated with no recurrence or evidence of malignancy on cytology of the fluid. The sensitivity and specificity of FNAC was 81.8% and 95.4% respectively. The false-negative and false-positive rates were 18.1% and 0%. The overall accuracy rate of FNAC in our study was 94.3%. FNAC is superior to isotope scan and ultrasonography which should be used as the initial investigation in the patients with solitary thyroid nodule.

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