UTILITY OF FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY (FNAC) AS A SCREENING TOOL IN DIAGNOSIS OF THYROID LESION IN CORRELATION WITH HISTOPATHOLOGY – A 4 YEARS STUDY

Background: Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has been proved to be a safe, cost effective, good screening and quick procedure for early diagnosis. Aim of study: To categorise various thyroid lesions To confirm preoperative suspected malignant cases Methods: This is a prospective study done over a period of four years from 2015 -2018. A total of 274 thyroid cases attending the outpatient department in Government General Hospital, Kadapa were sent for FNAC to the Department of Pathology, all these cases were categorised based on cyto- morphological features obtained on FNAC and later correlated with Histopathological findings. Results: 44 (16.08%) cases were categorised as inflammatory lesion. 208 (75.91%) cases were categorised as functional disorders like nodular goitre, nodular goitre with cystic degeneration. 10 (3.64%) cases were categorised as follicular neoplasm. Most common malignancy was papillary carcinoma with 7 (2.55%) cases. Un common malignancy was medullary carcinoma 1(0.36%) case. Keywords: FNAC, Kadapa, Medullary carcinoma, Papillary carcinoma