Morphometric studies on fine-needle aspirates from follicular proliferative lesions of the thyroid

A morphometric analysis was carried out on smears of fine needle aspirates obtained from proliferative follicular lesions of the thyroid. Mean values, range as well as histograms of nuclear areas were calculated in histologically-diagnosed cases of non-toxic goiters, follicular adenomas and well-differentiated follicular carcinomas. Mean nuclear areas were found to be significantly higher in carcinomas than in adenomas and in adenomas than in non-toxic goiters. In size-frequency distribution histograms, differences among corresponding classes of the three groups were not statistically significant. Linear discriminant analysis was ineffective in differentiating not only benign from malignant follicular tumors, but also non-toxic goiters from adenomas. Morphometric studies on nuclear areas of thyreocytes in fine needle aspirates do not appear to be able to differentiate between proliferative follicular lesions of the thyroid.