Aim of Work: In the present study we examined the role of both ultraso-nography and fine needle aspiration cytology in patients with thyroid nod­ules.
Patients and Methods : A retro­spective study of 217 patients with thyroid nodules who underwent neck uttrasonography and diagnostic fine needle aspiration cytology pre-operatively. Preoperative clinical, ul-trasonography and cytological diag­noses have been compared with the histological post-operative assess­ment.
Results : Thyroid US had sensitivi­ty, specificity and accuracy of 89.7%, 89.4%and 89.4% comparable to FNAC results of 96.6%, 95.7%and 99.5%.
In conclusion : In the present study we evaluated 217 patients for whom histopathology results were available and we found that FNAC gives a sensitivity of 96.6% and spec­ificity of 95.7%. However, a combina­tion of US and FNAC, rather than any single modality, will give optimal re­sults and avoid unnecessary surgery in a great number of patients without missing malignancy.