Fine-needle aspiration cytodiagnosis of the "cold" thyroid nodule

The results of 1886 fine-needle cytoaspirations of solid, palpable thyroid nodules, "cold" on scintiscanning, performed between 1 January 1978 and 31 December 1986, were analyzed. In total 36 diagnoses of malignancy were made (1.9%). The results of cytologic and histologic examinations were compared in 114 cases to verify the diagnostic accuracy of this method; there was agreement in 98 cases and discordance in 16 consisting of 13 false negatives (11.4%) and 3 false positives (2.6%). The sensitivity was 77.9%, specificity 94.5%, positive predictive value 93.8%, negative predictive value 80% and test efficiency 86%. These values are in the range of those reported in the literature and confirm the validity of fine-needle aspiration cytology in the preoperative diagnosis of thyroid neoplasms.