Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology: A three-year study at a tertiary care referral center in Saudi Arabia

AIM To stratify the malignancy risks in thyroid nodules in a tertiary care referral center using the Bethesda system. METHODS From January, 2012 to December, 2014, a retrospective analysis was performed among 1188 patients (15-90 years) who had 1433 thyroid nodules and fine-needle aspiration at Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Saudi Arabia. All thyroid cyto-pathological slides and ultra sound reports were reviewed and classified according to the Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology. Age, gender, cytological features and histological types of the thyroid cancer were collected from patients’ medical chart and cytopathology reports. RESULTS There were 124 total cases of malignancy on resection, giving an overall surgical yield malignancy of 33.6%. Majority of the thyroid cancer nodules (n = 57, 46%) in Bethesda VI category followed by Bethesda IV (n = 25, 20.2%). Almost 40% of the cancer nodules in 31-45 age group in both sex. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) was the most common form of thyroid cancer among the study population (111, 89.6%) followed by 8.9% of follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC), 0.8% of medullary carcinoma and 0.8% of anaplastic carcinoma. Among the Bethesda IV category 68% thyroid nodules were PTC and 32% FTC. CONCLUSION The malignancy values reported in our research were constant and comparable with the results of other published data with respect to the risk of malignancy. Patients with follicular neoplasm/suspicious for follicular neoplasm and suspicious of malignancy categories, total thyroidectomy is indicted because of the substantial risk of malignancy.