A comparative study between conventional system and the Bethesda system applied for reporting thyroid cytopathology

Aim and objectives: To compare the conventional and the Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology (TBSRTC), to correlate the cases with histology wherever available and to determine the sensitivity, specificity and false positive rates of both the methods. Material and methods: A Total of 240 patients who presented with thyroid gland swelling were subjected to thyroid fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and the smears were made followed by H&E staining and reporting was done. The conventional system used at our centre includes description of microscopic findings of the case along with an impression at the end. The categorization according to the Bethesda system of reporting thyroid cytology were done using criteria published in the atlas and related literature. The cytological diagnosis was correlated with the histological diagnosis wherever it was available. The sensitivity, specificity, false positive rates were calculated considering cytology as screening test for differentiating between neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions. Results: When the results of the conventional system were compared with the Bethesda adapted method was found to be more superior. Sensitivity of Bethesda system was significantly high (100%) as compared to conventional system (77%). Specificity of Bethesda system was also significantly high (82.5%) as compared to conventional system (69%). Conclusion: Our findings were consistent with others who used the Bethesda cytopathology reporting system.