SENSITIVITY AND SPECIFICITY OF FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF TUMORS OF THE THYROID-GLAND

  • 1 January 1985
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 29  (5) , 850-855
Abstract
A study of the preoperative fine needle aspiration cytologies in consecutive patients with primary malignant tumors (203 cases) or benign thyroid tumors (217 cases) showed a sensitivity of 0.57 and a specificity of 0.98. The sensitivity of FNA cytology in medullary and undifferentiated carcinomas was 0.82 and 0.84, respectively; none of these were microscopically misdiagnosed. The sensitivity was only 0.58 for papillary carcinomas (excluding occult carcinoma) and 0.42 for follicular carcinoma. Four reasons for these low sensitivities were identified: tumors missed at aspiration, microscopic misinterpretations, diagnosis of cellular atypia and indeterminate diagnosis. Reevaluation of the false diagnosis once more emphasized the problem of distinguishing follicular adenomas from follicular carcinomas. Microscopically undiagnosed papillary carcinomas were either the result of misinterpretations of the characteristic cytomorphologic features or of the smears being misdiagnosed as showing cellular atypia when papillary formations were missing and only one or two of the other cellular criteria were evident. The specificity of FNA cytology of thyroid tumors was found to be high enough to permit surgical intervention after a cytodiagnosis of malignancy.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: