# Sensitivity and Specificity Analysis of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) for Thyroid Swelling

## TL;DR

This study evaluates how well fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) detects thyroid swelling, finding it effective but with room for improvement in accuracy.

## Contribution

The study provides empirical evidence on FNAC's diagnostic accuracy for thyroid nodules in a specific Indian population.

## Key findings

- FNAC showed high sensitivity (95.38%) but moderate specificity (53.33%) in detecting thyroid nodules.
- Most patients (54.67%) had a single thyroid nodule, and the majority were in the 31-40 age group.
- FNAC is recommended as a first-line test but should not replace histopathology for final diagnosis.

## Abstract

Introduction

Thyroid gland disorders, such as goiters or tumor masses, are the result of localized or systemic aberrations of the thyroid gland. The purpose of this research was to see how effective fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was in detecting thyroid swelling in patients with thyroid swelling. It is critical to be able to differentiate between benign and malignant thyroid nodules to reduce unnecessary thyroid surgeries. It is hypothesized that FNAC is not a reliable diagnostic tool to detect thyroid nodules in patients with thyroid swelling and that there is a significant variation between the number of thyroid nodules detected by FNAC and the number of thyroid nodules that were eventually diagnosed as malignant by surgery. The significance of this research shows the effectiveness of diagnostic tests for thyroid nodules in patients with thyroid swelling can help reduce unnecessary surgeries and improve patient care.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was carried out at the Department of Pathology at a tertiary care hospital in central India, from March 1, 2022 to June 31, 2022. Fifty patients with thyroid swelling were covered in the study. All patients were chosen after an ultrasound revealed goiter on clinical grounds.

Results

The majority of patients in the age group 31-40 years (33.33%) were female (74.67%). About 54.67% of the patients had a single thyroid nodule. FNAC had a sensitivity of 95.38%, a specificity of 53.33%, a positive predictive value of 86.67% and a negative predictive value of 88.57%.

Conclusion

FNAC is a simple, economical, and commonly used first-line diagnostic method for thyroid cancer. A false negative or false positive cytological diagnosis may be produced as a result of thyroid cytology. The study emphasizes the need to improve basic healthcare in rural India by treating FNAC as a first-line diagnostic test for thyroid swellings to guide management, although it does not replace histopathology.