[Puncture cytologic diagnosis of thyroid diseases: potentialities and limitations of the method]

The role of fine-needle aspiration biopsy in cytological diagnosis of thyroid diseases is reviewed. This method allows not only to determine whether the condition is benign or malignant, but also diagnose nosological variants of thyroid pathology. The difficulties lie in the diagnosis of combined thyroid pathology, differential diagnosis of follicular adenoma with follicular carcinoma, lymphoma with autoimmune thyroiditis, follicular tumor with adenomatous goiter.