Objective: To assess whether an eosinophilic infiltration of the thyroid gland has a higher association with diffuse thyroid swellings especially Hashimoto's thyroiditis and search for more cytological clues to increase the sensitivity of diagnosis of diffuse swellings of thyroid gland on Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC).

Methods: A total of 80 cases were studied. Aspirates from these cases were studied for cytomorphological features, all the cases were divided into two groups- cases and control. The cases diagnosed as Hashimoto's thyroiditis were included in the case group and cases diagnosed as other benign swellings except Hashimoto's thyroiditis were included in the control group..

Results: 40% of the cases showed an average of more than I esinophil per HPF but none of the cases in the control group showed an average more than 1. Thus, we saw that number of Eosinophils per HPF in the smears diagnosed as Hashimoto's thyroiditis found higher than in the smears from the control group. We also observed that the average ratio of eosinophils to neutrophils in the smears diagnosed as Hashimoto's thyroiditis was found to be significantly greater than in smears from the control group. Among the patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis 80-90% have high titers of antithyroglobulin antibodies.

Conclusion: Besides serological diagnosis presence of eosinophil per HPF increases the sensitivity of cytological diagnosis of Hashimoto thyroiditis.

Keywords: Hashimoto, eosinophil, antithyroglobulin.

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Dr Maaz Farooqui

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