Cytology-histopathology correlation in patients with thyroid nodule. seven years of experience of a referral hospital at Panamá

Abstract

The objective of this research is to establish the correlation between cytology and histopathology in patients with thyroidectomy at the Rafael Hernandez L. Regional Hospital from 2011 to 2017 by using the database of the Rafael Hernandez L. Regional Hospital, 123 patients had both cytology and thyroid histopathology results. Percentages, x² test, p≤0.05, sensitivity, specificity, and Kappa index were used to analyze the results. As results were obtained: of the 123 patients with histopathology results, 47(38.2%) were malignant. Of the 28 non-diagnostic cytologies, 9 (32%) were carcinoma in histopathology, of the 36 cases with benign cytology, 7(19%) were carcinoma, of the 28 cases with Bethesda III-IV, 8(29%) were thyroid cancer, of the 20 cases of suspected malignancy, 15(75%) were malignant and of the 11 malignant cases in cytology, 8(72.7%) were malignant. When applying the kappa index a minimum to moderate correlation was obtained. Finally, as the conclusion in this study, there is a minimal to moderate correlation between the thyroid cytology and the histopathology.