Keywords:
Head and neck, Interventional non-vascular, Management, Ultrasound, Ultrasound-Colour Doppler, Biopsy, Diagnostic procedure, Cancer, Education and training, Pathology
Authors:
S. A. H. hassanein1, B. A. M. Dessouky2, Z. ali3; 1Shebin el-kom,menoufia/EG, 2Elgharbeya/EG, 3Cairo/EG
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-0832
Aims and objectives
Thyroid nodules are very common; they are found in 4%-8% of adults by means of palpation,
in 10%- 41% by means of ultrasound and in 50% by means of pathologic examination at autopsy.
Unfortunately,
the majority of them are asymptomatic and most nodules detected by ultrasound are non-palpable (ultrasound can detect thyroid cysts as small as 2 mm and solid nodules as small as 3 mm),
hence came the need for their characterization to exclude the presence of malignancy.
[1-4]
Since ultrasound depicts the thyroid internal structure and its surrounding structures as well as the regional lymph nodes without using ionizing radiation or iodinated contrast material,
it became the initial and most useful imaging modality for assessment of the thyroid diseases.
(5,6)
Palpation guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) has been the primary diagnostic modality for evaluating patients with a thyroid nodule.
However,
there are certain limitations including difficulty of sampling,
nodules that are small,
indistinct,
predominately cystic,
posterior in location,
or deep within the neck.
All of these factors are causes for a non-diagnostic FNAB result,
which has been reported to occur in 7% to 25% of patients [7],
also sampling errors can occur in very large (more than 4 cm) and very small (less than 1 cm) nodules.
This can be minimized by using ultrasound-guided biopsy as it provides real time and continuous visualization of the needle during insertion and sampling [8-10]
Therefore,
the purpose of our study was to combine both benefits in one time by assessing the ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration (US-FNA) biopsy in the evaluation of thyroid nodules.