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Significance of nondiagnostic fine-needle aspiration of the thyroid
T Schmidt1, M W Riggs, V O Speights
1Department of Pathology, Scott & White Clinic and Memorial Hospital, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, College of Medicine, Temple 76508, USA.
Background:
Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) has been shown to be rapid and cost effective in the evaluation of thyroid nodules. The significance of nondiagnostic (unsatisfactory) FNAB is uncertain, however.
Methods:
We reviewed 345 consecutive thyroid FNABs and identified 59 patients with initially unsatisfactory specimens. These patients had follow-up to determine whether their thyroid nodules proved to be malignant.
Results:
Three patients (5.1%) were found to have organ-confined papillary carcinoma of the thyroid, the largest tumor mass measuring 1.2 cm. Six patients (10.2%) had benign adenomas.
Conclusions:
In most cases of initially nondiagnostic FNAB of a thyroid nodule, neoplasia is not found subsequently. A minority of cases may still harbor malignancy. None of our patients in whom repeated FNA was either nondiagnostic or suggestive of benign disease were ultimately found to have a malignancy.