[Thyroid cytology]

The fine needle aspiration cytology of the thyroid represents a valuable aid for clinical decisions besides scintigraphy and sonography if representative cellular material is available. False diagnoses of malignancy may be totally avoided whereas a relatively high percentage of malignant tumours escapes the cytological diagnosis mostly as a consequence of insufficient puncture. For the intraoperative decision concerning the extent of resection, imprint cytology shows better results than frozen sections at least for follicular tumours.