title: Cytological diagnosis of pediatric thyroid nodule in perspective of the Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Thyroid nodule is one of the most common endocrinopathies occurring children and adolescents. Though thyroid nodule is rare in the pediatric age group, the rate of malignancy is much higher in this age group compared to adult population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective is to study the application of The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (TBSRTC) in pediatric patients and compare the findings with histology.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 218 cases younger than 18 years were studied in a 4-year period from August 2010 to July 2014. The smears were categorized according to TBSRTC into six categories - Nondiagnostic, benign, atypia of undetermined significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance (AUS/FLUS), suspicious for follicular neoplasm (SFN), suspicious for malignancy (SM), and malignancy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 218 cases, 33 were males and 185 were females. Histological follow-up was available in 44 cases. The diagnosis according to TBSRTC included 12 (5.5%) nondiagnostic, 151 (69.26%) benign, 23 (10.5%) AUS/FLUS, 18 (8.2%) SFN, 5 (2.3%) SM, and 9 (4.1%) malignancy cases. On histological follow-up, the rate of malignancy in each category was 0%, 0%, 8.3%, 10% 100%, and 100%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study demonstrates that TBSRTC in pediatric thyroid nodule is as sensitive and specific as in adults, especially with 100% accuracy in the diagnosis of benign and malignant categories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Chayanika
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pantola
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kala
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Lubna
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiodiagnosis, Bharat Scan and Research Institute, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Saurabh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pantola
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Mahendra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Sumanlata
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verma
keywords: Cytopathology; the Bethesda System; thyroid nodule