Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Thyroid nodules are common. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has an essential role in the evaluation of thyroid nodules, but results may be nondiagnostic. A standardised (FNAC) reporting system: Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytology (BSRTC) is widely used.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of (FNAC) of thyroid nodules performed at our Hospital before and after the introduction of (BSRTC).

Methods: We studied records of all patients who had undergone (FNAC) in the period between 2005 and 2015. We identified two methods of (FNAC) reporting: Traditional and (BSRTC) reporting. The ‘traditional’ reporting system was as follow: nondiagnostic; benign; suspicious or malignant. The (BSRTC) used the ‘thy’ classification. We used SPSS v 15 statistical package for Analysis.

Results: The total number studied was 156. Mean age for the traditional group was 56.93±14.87 vs. 59.39±13.57 in the (BSRTC) group (P=0.34). Overall diagnostic adequacy was 95/156 (60.9%). In the ‘traditional group’, the diagnostic accuracy was 62/118 (52.54%) vs. 33/38 (86.84%) in the (BSRTC) group (P=0.001). We re-evaluated all non-diagnostic cytology reported with the ‘traditional method’ now using (BSRTC) system. Cytology reports were assigned a group (Thy 1–5). Of the 56 non- diagnostic cytology: 17/56 (30.4%) were reassigned to thy2; 1/56 (1.8%) to thy3; 38/56 (67.8%) remained as thy1 (non-diagnostic). Reclassification improved the overall diagnostic accuracy to 113/156 (72.43%) (P=0.015) with an improvement in the traditional group diagnostic yield to 80/118 (67.8%) (P=0.008).

Conclusion: The use of the (BSRTC) reporting system improved our (FNAC) diagnostic yield significantly.