Efficacy and Pitfalls of FNAC of Thyroid Lesions in Children and Adolescents.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Fine-needle aspiration has proven safe and efficacious in the evaluation of nodular diseases in the adults. It has been used extensively to select patients for surgical exploration with a high degree of reliability. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent of its applicability in thyroid lesions in children and adolescents, as well as to determine distribution of thyroid lesions in pediatric and adolescent patients in whom the prevalence of thyroid nodules and probability of malignancy are different. METHODOLOGY This is a four-year study undertaken between January 2009 and December 2012, during which, 284 fine-needle aspiration cytology were performed for palpable thyroid lesions in children and adolescents and analysed. Out of these 11, 52, 82 and 116 aspirates belonged to the age group between 7-<12 years, 12 -<16 years, 16 -<19 years, 19-21 years respectively. There were 261 (91.9%) satisfactory aspirates and 23 unsatisfactory aspirates (8.1%). These 261 satisfactory aspirates with adequate cellular material were taken up for interpretation and analysed. Thirty one patients underwent thyroidectomy. There were 4 true positives, 24 true negatives, 2 false positives and one false negative case in this study. Sensitivity, Specificity, Accuracy, Positive predictive value and Negative predictive value were calculated. RESULTS Benign cytology was reported in 89 cases (34.2%) where 11 cases (4.2%) were males. Thyroiditis was observed in 154 cases (59%) and 8 cases (3.1%) were males. Suspicious cytology was reported in 12 cases and comprised of 2 cases with a suspicion of Papillary Carcinoma and 10 cases (3.8%), with a suspicion of a Follicular lesion. Papillary Carcinoma was detected on 6 cases where all were females. The Sensitivity was 96%, Specificity was 66% and the Accuracy was 90%, Positive predictive value was 66%, Negative predictive value was 96%. CONCLUSION Fine-needle aspiration cytology of palpable thyroid lesions in children and adolescents is a good screening test because of its high sensitivity. Majority of the nodules in this age-group are benign and fine-needle aspiration cytology helps prevent unnecessary surgery.