Feasibility of fine-needle aspiration biopsy and its applications in superficial cervical lesion biopsies

The aim of the study was to investigate the feasibility and value of clinical application of fine-needle aspiration histological biopsy via ultrasound-guided thyroid nodule and enlarged cervical lymph node fine-needle aspiration histological biopsy. Fine-needle aspiration cytological and histological biopsies and surgical treatments were performed on 982 patients with thyroid nodule and 1435 patients with enlarged cervical lymph nodes. A comparative study of the histological and cytological examination results and post-surgical etiology results was subsequently conducted. Among the 982 thyroid nodule patients, the acquisition rates were 89.8% (882/982) for fine-needle aspiration histological biopsy and 96.2% (945/982) for cytological biopsy, while among the 1435 patients with enlarged cervical lymph nodes, the acquisition rate for fine-needle aspiration cytological biopsy was slightly higher than that for histological biopsy, with values of 95.7% (1374/1435) and 91.4% (1312/1435), respectively. For the thyroid nodule patients, when the acquired histological and cytological biopsy results were compared with the post-surgical etiology results, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the histological results were 98.5%, 100%, and 98.9%, respectively, whereas those of the cytological results were 86.8%, 82.9%, and 85.6%, respectively; the differences between the 2 biopsy methods were statistically significant (P < 0.05). For the patients with enlarged cervical lymph nodes, when the acquired histological and cytological biopsy results were compared with the post-surgical etiology results, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the histological results were 96.3%, 99.8%, and 97.6%, respectively, whereas the those of the cytological results were 76.8%, 92.1%, and 82.2%, respectively; again, the differences between the 2 methods were statistically significant (P < 0.05). In conclusion, Fine-needle aspiration histological biopsy is a reliable and highly accurate examination method. It is simple and feasible, thus facilitating the discrimination of malignant and benign thyroid nodules and enlarged cervical lymph nodes and playing an important role in the establishment of reasonable clinical therapeutic regimens.