Impact of ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology for diagnosis of thyroid nodules

Background: Previous clinical studies have reported that ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (UGFNAC) can be used for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules (TN) effectively. However, no study has systematically explored its diagnosis accuracy in patients with TN. Thus, this study will assess its diagnosis accuracy for TN. Methods: We will perform a comprehensive literature search from the following databases from their inceptions to the present without language restrictions: MEDILINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. We will consider all case-controlled studies investigating the impacts of UGFNAC diagnosis for patients with TN for inclusion. Two authors will independently carry out study selection, data collection, and methodological quality assessment. Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool will be used for methodological quality evaluation. We will use RevMan V.5.3 and Stata V.12.0 software to perform statistical analysis. Results: We will apply sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio to judge the diagnostic accuracy of UGFNAC for TN. Conclusion: The results of this study will provide latest evidence for the diagnostic accuracy of UGFNAC for TN.