Imprint cytology from a childhood case of metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma

A 9-year-old girl with a history of a palpable multinodular hard mass in the right lobe of the thyroid gland was biopsied. On diagnosis of a papillary carcinoma, total thyroidectomy and right radical neck dissection were performed. Examination of frozen sections demonstrated metastasis in the right but not the left cervical lymph nodes. Imprint cytology revealed small papillary sheets of neoplastic cells with a high proportion of cytoplasmic inclusions and a few nuclear grooves. These nuclear details allowed a specific diagnosis of metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma. Papillary thyroid carcinoma can be easily diagnosed by imprint cytology. In places such as small and country hospitals that do not have pathology laboratories, it can also be used successfully as an alternative to frozen section histology. The efficiency, simplicity and rapidity of this method make it a very useful procedure.