ROLE OF ULTRASOUND IN DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF THYROID NODULES.

Introduction: The clinical condition of thyroid swelling is one that is most frequently seen in surgical practise. They are primarily caused by the generalised enlargement. Being non-invasive, USG helps to diagnosis the thyroid pathologies and manage accordingly. Inspite of all the advantages, in few cases, ultrasound cannot distinguish between malignant and benign masses. It needs to be correlated with FNAC to conrm denitive diagnosis. Aim: To establish the demographic data of thyroid nodules using ultrasonography and to assess the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound for evaluation of thyroid nodules. The study was conducted after getting approval from Materials and methods: our institution ethical committee and after obtaining written informed consent from the patients during the period from January 2021 to June 2022 in the Department of Radiology, SRM Medical College hospital and Research center, Kattankulathur, Chengalpattu district.”It is a cross sectional study done on fty patients who were diagnosed to have thyroid nodules by B-mode ultrasound or by palpation.” Patients who fullled the inclusion criteria were undertaken for the study.”Detailed history and reports of thyroid function tests were collected from these patients. Following ultrasound evaluation of thyroid nodules using TIRADS scoring, the nal diagnosis was conrmed by histopathology or cytology. Results: In this study done with 50 patients, thyroid nodules were observed in the age group from 21-70 years. Of this, most of them were found in the age group of 21-30 years. Majority of thyroid nodules found in men were benign nodules. Majority presented with neck swelling followed by swelling associated with pain and incidentally detected nodules. Most of the cases were euthyroid with few of them being hypothyroid. Majority presented with complaints for more than 6 months duration. Most of the patients had duration of symptoms more than 6 months for both benign and malignant nodules. It was seen that the ultrasonography and HPE diagnoses were similar in 97.22% of the cases with benign lesions and 40% of cases with malignant lesions. The sensitivity of diagnosing malignant lesions on ultrasound was 87.5% and specicity was 83.33%. Accuracy of ultrasound was 84%. Conclusion: The study was able to establish the demographical data of thyroid nodules and diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound with FNAC/HPE as a gold standard technique