USG-Guided FNAC in Gomti Nagar, Lucknow

In plain FNAC the doctor finds the lump with their fingers and aims the needle by feel. That works for a lump you can feel clearly. It is harder when the lump is the size of a pea, sits behind a muscle or lies next to a large blood vessel.

With ultrasound, the needle appears as a bright line on the screen and the doctor watches its tip enter the lump. The doctor can also choose the part most likely to give useful cells, such as the solid part of a nodule rather than the fluid in its centre.

Seeing the nearby structures can make the procedure safer too. In the neck, for example, the doctor can steer clear of the large vessels and the windpipe.

The needle, the cell sample and the laboratory work are the same as in plain FNAC, so read that page for how results are reported. Three things change on the day.

• A scan comes first. The radiologist scans the lump to confirm it is the one your doctor means, and measures it.
• Two things happen at once. One hand holds the probe against your skin, with gel in between, while the other guides the needle beside it.
• The visit is a little longer, because of the scan and the time taken to line up the needle. The team will tell you how long to allow when you book.

You may be asked to keep very still, hold your breath or avoid swallowing as the needle goes in. This stops the lump moving on the screen.

These are the usual reasons. Your referral and your scan decide whether any of them applies to you.

• A thyroid nodule found on ultrasound, especially a small one that cannot be felt in the neck.
• Swollen glands deep in the neck, in the armpit or in the groin, or glands seen on a scan but not felt.
• A deep soft-tissue lump lying under muscle or fat.
• A repeat sample after plain FNAC gave too few cells.
• A mixed lump with both solid and fluid parts, where the solid part needs sampling.

Guidance improves aim, but it cannot promise a result. The sample may still hold too few cells, and a normal report does not always rule out a problem. If the answer stays unclear, your doctor may advise a core biopsy under ultrasound.

Ultrasound cannot see every lump. One hidden behind bowel gas, bone or lung needs a different approach, and the doctor advises which.

Lumps in the breast are sampled through the breast care service, which has its own page for breast FNAC.

Most people come for this reason, so it helps to know what to expect. Before the needle, the radiologist scans the nodule and the gland around it. The size matters, but so do the nodule's outline, whether it is solid or part fluid, and whether it sits near a large vessel.

Those features help decide whether a nodule needs sampling at all and which part to aim for. You are positioned with the neck gently stretched, and you stay still and avoid swallowing while the needle is in, because the thyroid moves when you swallow. Each pass lasts a few seconds, and more than one is common.

Your doctor usually checks thyroid function as well, with a thyroid profile. The result sits alongside the scan and the FNAC report when the next step is decided.