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Significance of AgNOR Counts in Thyroid Cytology

Tanu Agrawal, Amresh Kumar, and Lovekush Gupta

To determine the value of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) in fine needle aspiration smears of thyroid lesions. Fine needle aspiration smears of 33 histologically confirmed thyroid lesions comprising11 cases of colloid goitre,8 cases of follicular adenoma,5 cases of follicular carcinoma, 5 cases of papillary carcinoma, 2 cases of medullary carcinoma and 2 cases of anaplastic carcinoma were stained for AgNORs. Mean AgNOR counts were compared to see if they could help in distinguishing the different lesions from each other especially follicular adenoma from follicular carcinoma. Mean AgNOR counts in colloid goitre were significantly higher than those in neoplastic lesions. Among the neoplastic lesions mean AgNOR counts were not statistically significantly different except for those in anaplastic carcinoma. AgNOR counts were of no use in differentiating among the various neoplastic thyroid lesions on cytology smears because of considerable overlap