Cytological patterns of thyroid lesions at Gondar University Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: A retrospective study

Abstract

Tadele Melak, Molla Abebe, Woghata Tesfaye, Mulugeta Melku

Background: Thyroid lesion is a common disorder of the endocrine system worldwide. Characterizing varies type of the lesions in a given setup has paramount importance to design effective strategy. As a result, the purpose of this study was to find out the frequency of various cytological thyroid lesions in Gondar University Hospital. Materials and Methods: A retrospective data of 1010 thyroid lesions, which were registered from 2009 to 2013 on fine needle aspirate cytology log book, were included in the study. Descriptive statistics was done to determine the proportion of the thyroid lesions. Results: Of the total patients underwent thyroid cytological examination, 768 (76%) were females. More than half of thyroid lesions were observed in patients who were under 30 years old. Benign thyroid lesions (916 [90.7%]) were the commonest followed by malignant and neoplastic lesions that account 41 (4.1%) and 38 (3.76%) respectively. Colloid goiter (862/919 [93.8%]), follicular neoplasm (30/38 [78.9%]) and papillary carcinoma (25/41 [61%]) were the major subtype of benign, neoplasm and malignant lesions respectively. Thyroid tuberculosis (TB) was also found in 3 (0.29%) cases of benign lesions. Conclusion: Benign lesions were the predominant thyroid lesion; of which the proportion of colloid goiter was higher compared to another subtype of benign thyroid lesions. Unusual benign lesions like thyroid TB were also observed. Malignant thyroid lesions had also contributed a significant amount. Future research with histological technique, detail socio-demographic information, and clinical feature is crucial to determine the patterns of thyroid lesions and associated factors.