A study of solitary thyroid nodule: benign or malignant

Introduction-A solitary nodule is a goitre which, on clinical examination appears to be a single nodule in one lobe of the thyroid with no palpable abnormality elsewhere in the gland1. We have studied cases of solitary thyroid nodule and evaluated the patients with radiological investigation, FNAC and histopathological report to make diagnosis and determine the rate of malignancy in solitary nodule. Material and Method: All patients with solitary thyroid nodule were included in study. They underwent USG of neck, FNAC of the nodule and surgery was done. The specimen was sent for histopathological review and final diagnosis was made accordingly. Result: STN are more common thyroid lesion with Females affected more. Malignancy rate is 20% which was more of papillary type. FNAC and USG play an important role in diagnosis of STN but final conclusion is made with histopath report. Conclusion: FNAC has accuracy of 82%. FNAC and USG help us in diagnosis of the disease but they have limitations besides requiring expertize to interpret. Histopathological report is gold standard for diagnosis of pathology of thyroid.