[Results of a cytological study of needle aspiration in 85 cases of nodular pathology of the thyroid gland, surgically controlled].

UNLABELLED: The present retrospective study is related to 85 patients with nodular thyroid pathology submitted to surgical therapy. In these patients preoperative cytology, through fine needle biopsy aspiration (FNBA), has been compared with histological examination performed on the surgical specimen. Malignant lesions were detected in 30 cases (35.3%). True positives cases were 14, true negative 48, false positive and false negative (FN) were 2 and 3 respectively. Due to the high number of FN, sensibility of FNBA was only 51.8%, specificity was 96% and accuracy 80.5%. Positive and negative predictive value were 87.5% and 78.6% respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation of the several sources of error comes to a conclusion that FNBA is certainly the main diagnostic tool in nodular thyroid pathology. Its employment should undergo to a centralized diagnostic evaluation in such a way that cytology is analysed together with clinical and other instrumental data.