Diagnosis of benign and malignant lesions of thyroid by FNAC and AgNO3

Benign thyroid nodules are common in adults and thyroid malignancy is the most common malignancy of endocrine system. Papillary thyroid carcinoma and follicular thyroid carcinoma are often curable and prognosis is good if identified in early stage.To avoid unnecessary surgery 'Fine needle aspiration cytology' (FNAC) is used as a diagnostic tool to differentiate benign nodule from malignant nodule. To improve the diagnostic accuracy of FNAC ,silver nitrate staining technique is applied. Smear from patients is stained with silver nitrate and nucleolar organising regions (segments of DNA) were stained as brown/black spots called AgNORs. Neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions are differentiated by this technique. A total number of 119 cases were subjected to FNAC. Most cases occurred in females(94%) Maximum number of cases were seen in age group 21 to 30 years. There was significant higher AgNORs score in malignant lesions.