A Comparative Study of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) and Fine Needle Non-aspiration Cytology (FNNAC) Technique in Lesions of Thyroid Gland

The present study was done to compare diagnostic yield by fine needle non aspiration technique (FNNAC) with Fine Needle Aspiration cytology (FNAC) of lesions in thyroid gland. FNNAC and FNAC both were performed on 69 patients presenting with thyroid lesions, except those suffering from thyrotoxicosis. Smears were then cytologically interpreted by a single pathologist as unsuitable, diagnostically adequate or diagnostically superior for opinion, without the knowledge of sampling method employed. Slides were evaluated for following aspects namely cellularity, presence of colloid, inflammatory cell, hemosiderin laden macrophages, papillary clusters nuclear overlapping, nuclear grooving, hurthle cells. FNNAC gave better results in form of better quality of cellularity and less field obscurity by blood in lesions of thyroid. Diagnostically superior specimens were obtained more frequently by FNNAC, so this technique should be used alone or in tandem with FNAC for better diagnostic yield.