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Background and purpose: The prevalence of malignancy in thyroid nodules have been reported 1-10%. Epidemiological studies suggest that thyroid cancer incidence is rising over the last 20 years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of fine needle aspiration of thyroid nodules in patients referred to Imam Khomeini hospital in recent decades (2003-2011) in Sari. Materials and methods: This is a cross sectional, retrospective study. The results of cytology were recorded and compared with pathology results. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of fine needle aspiration for prediction of malignancy were assessed. Results: The study population included 2002 patients with thyroid nodules, 210 cases were male (10.5%) and 1792 women (89.5%). Cytology results in 1598 cases (79.8%) were benign, 205(10.2 %) unsatisfactory, 53(2.6 %) suspicious and 146 (7.3 %) malignant. 217 reports of pathology results of patients with thyroidectomy were available, 153(70.5%) specimens were benign and 64 (29.5%) malignant. The sensitivity of fine needle biopsy was 81.2% and specificity, 75.1%. positive predictive value(PPV) and negative predictive value(NPV) were 63.4% and 93.5 percent respectively. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, thyroid fine needle aspiration is still a good way to predict thyroid malignancy and the incidence of thyroid malignancy in our patients has not increased in recent decades.

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Introduction: Thyroid cancer is the most common malignancy of the endocrine. The factors involved in differentiation of thyroid nodules are highly important. This study was done to determine the relationship between serum TSH and cytology finding of thyroid nodules. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 275 patients enrolled. Complete physical examination was done and the serum TSH was measured by IRMA method. The serum T4 and T3 were also measured if the TSH was outside the normal range. In all patients thyroid ultrasound was performed. Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) biopsy was done on all thyroid nodules and cytology results were interpreted by a pathologist. Data was then analyzed applying Stata software. Finding: The mean age of the patients was 42.5±12.5 years and there were 85.8% female. The mean of BMI was 23.7±2.2 kg/m². Calcification was found in 36% of thyroid nodules and microcalcification was observed in 92%. The mean TSH level in patients with malignancy was higher than that of those with benign thyroid nodules. Each unit increase in levels of TSH increased the risk of thyroid malignancy by 23% (OR=1.23 CI: 1.01-1.5). This risk has also increased by 38% with each unit increase in BMI (OR= 1.38 CI: 1.15- 1.66). Conclusion: This study suggests that serum TSH level could be used as a predictor of the probability of malignancy in thyroid nodules.

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Background and purpose: Thyroid nodules are quite common witch are found in clinical or ultrasound examinations. They are detected in 4-8% of clinical examinations and 7-15% are malignant. TSH is one of the growth factors for nodule growth. Controversial reports are published on the effect of TSH on thyroid nodule malignancy. This study aimed at investigating the effect of TSH in predicting malignancy in thyroid nodules.
Materials and methods: In this cross sectional research, 500 patients were studied. Serum TSH level was measured prior to fine needle aspiration (FNA). Data analysis was done applying inferential statistics. 
Results: The patients were 457 (91.4%) females and 43 (8.6%) males and the mean age was 43.43±13.9 years.  Among the patients 240 had single nodule and 260 had multiple thyroid nodules (P=0.08). The mean size of nodules in benign and malignant nodules were 26.1±12.2 and 27.3±9.8 mm, respectively (P=0.6). Malignant and benign nodules were observed in 31 (6.2%) and 469 (93.8%) patients. Mean TSH level was 3.3±6.9 and 2.4±2 in patients with benign and malignant nodules, respectively (P= 0.47). To investigate the association between TSH and FNA cytology, TSH levels were divided into <0.5, 4.9-0.5, and ≥5 using person correlation. This study showed no significant difference between the three groups (P= 0.3).
Conclusion: TSH alone is not a suitable marker for predicting thyroid malignancy.