Diagnostic efficacy of ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspiration cytology on thyroid swellings

Abstract Introduction Patients presenting with a thyroid nodule, if malignant, may call for removal. A good screening tool with high diagnostic value for preoperative evaluation is preferred. Through real-time visualization of the needle to aspirate from the suspicious site, ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology could be an excellent screening tool. Materials and method A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at Ganesh Man Singh Memorial Academy of Ear Nose Throat–Head and Neck Studies, Kathmandu, Nepal, from September 2018 to November 2019. We included 59 subjects of 15–72 years meeting the inclusion criteria. All study participants underwent preoperative ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytological evaluation of thyroid nodule, which was correlated with their histopathological findings to determine diagnostic values. Result The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology of thyroid nodule was 96.96%, 61.53%, and 81.35%, respectively. On stratification according to size, high sensitivity of 100% was observed in evaluating lesions of size 4 cm. There was a good inter-rater agreement between findings of ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology and histopathology with a kappa coefficient of 0.607. Conclusion Ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspiration cytology is a reliable procedure to evaluate thyroid lesions with high diagnostic value. It is an excellent tool for evaluating small, non-palpable nodules.