Abstract :
Introduction and Objectives: Fine needle aspiration (FNA) has about 90% diagnostic accuracy for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) in an adequate sample. Ignorance of relative significance of individual cytologic features may lead to misdiagnosis due to reliance on a single or few features. Our objective was to determine the usefulness of individual and most appropriate combined cytologic features, for diagnosis of PTC.
Materials and Methods: H&E stained FNA smears of fifty cases each, of consecutive histologically confirmed PTC and benign thyroid cases (controls), reported over 3 years, were retrieved from the files. A total of 31 architectural, cytological and background features were assessed, blind to the final diagnosis and compared amongst the two groups. The statistical significance (p
Discussion: Twenty features were found to be statistically significant. Fourteen highly significant (p
Conclusion: Using correct combination of cytologic features will increase accuracy of FNA diagnosis of PTC.
Keyword :
Fine needle aspiration, Papillary thyroid carcinoma, Cytologic.