Amreek Lal, Siyab Ahmad, Waseem Khan, Liaqat Ali, Mian Anwar Zeb, Farhana Shaheen.
Diagnostic Utility of Cell Block Technique as an Adjunct Technique to Cytological Smears in Evaluation of Thyroid Aspirates on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology.
J Saidu Med Col Jan ;11(4):217-22.

Background: Fine needle aspiration cytology is a standard screening technique for the diagnosis and assessment of thyroid nodules. However, this approach has some drawbacks, such as false negative or positive outcomes and high rates of unsatisfactory results. Objective: To describe the utility of cell block technique as an adjunct to conventional smear in the cytodiagnosis of thyroid epithelial lesions. Material and Methods: This Descriptive Cross-sectional study was done at the Pathology department of Saidu Group of Teaching Hospital Saidu Sharif Swat from 1st November 2017 to 31st April 2018. Fine needle aspirates for both the direct smear and cell block were collected simultaneously from 60 patients, through non- probability convenient sampling. All patients having clinically enlarged thyroid, solitary or dominant thyroid nodule were included in the study. All patients below 22 years old and patients who did not give informed consent were excluded. Ethical clearance was obtained from the ethical research committee before carrying out the study. Written informed consent was taken from all the participating patients. Cellularity, obscuring background material, morphological and architectural preservation as well as cytodiagnosis on direct smear and cell block technique were compared. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 21. McNemar's chi-square test was applied for significant difference. P-value of = 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Male to Female ratio was 1:7.5, (13%: 87%). The age ranged from 22 to 81 years with a mean age of 44.9 and standard deviation of ±14.5 years. The study showed that the cell block technique has high cellularity, minimal obscuring background, better architectural preservation and poor morphological preservation on cell block in comparison to direct smear. The majority of the cases were benign on both techniques. The unsatisfactory rate was reduced in cell block technique and showed additional information in 13 % cases. Conclusion: The study demonstrated no significant difference in the diagnostic utility of both techniques. Keywords: Cell Block Cytopathology, FNAC, Mair et al criteria

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com