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Screw needle cytology of thyroid nodules is associated with a lower non-diagnostic rate compared to fine needle
Tamira K Klooker1, Anne Huibers1, Klaas In 't Hof2
1Departments of Endocrinology and MetabolismSurgeryAcademic Medical Centre, Meibergdreef 9, Amsterdam 1105 AZ, The NetherlandsDepartment of SurgeryFlevo Hospital, Almere, The NetherlandsDepartments of RadiologyPathologyAcademic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Background:
Fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology is the method of choice to exclude malignancy in thyroid nodules. A major limitation of thyroid FNA is the relatively high rate (13-17%) of non-diagnostic samples. The aim of this study is to determine the diagnostic yield of a screw needle compared to the conventional FNA.
Methods:
We retrospectively analysed thyroid nodule cytology of all patients that underwent thyroid nodule fine needle or screw needle aspiration between July 2007 and July 2012 in a single academic medical centre. Cytology results were categorized according to the Bethesda classification system.
Results:
In total, 644 punctures of thyroid nodules from 459 patients were available for analysis. The screw needle was used 531 times, and the conventional fine needle 113 times. The percentage of non-diagnostic cytology was significantly lower in the screw needle samples than in the fine needle samples (3% vs 17%, P<0.001).
Conclusion:
This study shows a significantly better diagnostic performance of the screw needle compared to the conventional fine needle in cytology of thyroid nodules.