Fine Needle Aspiration versus Fine Needle Capillary Sampling Technique in Cyto-diagnosis of Thyroid Lesions

Introduction: In diagnosis of thyroid lesions, the negative pressure applied during fine needle aspirationcytology (FNAC) frequently produces bloody smears. This results in a compromise in cellular concentrationand architecture which may lead to improper interpretation. Fine needle capillary sampling cytology(FNCC), on the other hand, avoids active aspiration as it depends on capillary tension to collect tissuesamples in the needle bore. This study evaluated the diagnostic performance of FNAC and FNCC in thyroidlesions. Methods: A total of 120 patients were included in this study conducted over a duration of 19months. All thyroid swellings advised for cyto-diagnosis were sampled by both fine-needle aspiration(FNAC) and non-aspiration (FNCC) techniques. The slides were assessed according to the Mair et al.scoring system. Results: In the FNCC group, 72 (60%) smears were diagnostically superior while 54 (45%)smears were diagnostically superior in the FNAC group. Blood contamination (p=0.003), cellular trauma(p=0.019), and degree of cellular degeneration (p=0.026) were less and cellular architecture (p=0.047) waspreserved more in FNCC in comparison to FNAC groups. Conclusion: This study showed the superiority ofFNCC for the interpretation and diagnosis of thyroid lesions. However, the combination of both FNAC andFNCC could maximize the diagnostic yield.