Scientific paperFine-needle aspiration of the thyroid and correlation with histopathology in a contemporary series of 240 patients
Section snippets
Material and methods
Between January 1991 and September 2002, 240 consecutive patients underwent thyroidectomy in the Department of Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for thyroid nodules that had undergone FNA biopsy (at our institution or at an outside institution prior to referral). FNA biopsies performed at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center were done with or without ultrasound guidance: thyroid nodules that were easily palpable were aspirated by a cytopathologist, and
Results
We identified 240 consecutive patients who underwent FNA biopsy followed by thyroidectomy (lobectomy or total thyroidectomy) for a dominant thyroid nodule. The 180 (75%) female and 60 (25%) male patients had a median age of 46 years (range 5 to 96) at the time of thyroidectomy. One hundred and thirteen (47%) of the 240 FNA biopsies were performed at an outside institution prior to referral, and 127 (53%) were performed at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Ultrasound-guided FNA biopsy was performed
Comments
We categorized cytologic results into four groups: positive for malignancy, negative for malignancy, indeterminate for malignancy, and nondiagnostic specimen. Such categorization of FNA biopsy results is necessary to allow clinicians to use cytology results to guide patient management with specific reference to the need for thyroidectomy. False-positive FNA biopsy results are uncommon and were found in only 3 (4%) patients in this series. This finding is consistent with other recent reports
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