Acta clinica Croatica, Vol. 43 No. 1, 2004.
Professional paper
Accuracy of Ultrasound Guided Fine Needle Aspiration in Patients with Nodular Thyroid Disease
Irena Tabain
Neven Mateša
Zvonko Kusić
Abstract
The aim of the study was to evaluate effectiveness of ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration in patients with nodular thyroid disease. Over a 7-year period, there were 457 patients with nodular thyroid disease who underwent ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration with subsequent histologic verification. Diagnostic fine needle aspiration findings were classified into one of the following categories: benign, indeterminate and malignant. The cytologic diagnosis of benign finding was histologically confirmed in 206 (99.5%) of 207 patients. Of 166 patients with indeterminate cytology, 25 (15.1%) were shown to be malignant, 107 (64.4%) were adenomas, and 34 (20.5%) were non-neoplastic lesions. Of 76 patients with malignant fine needle aspiration cytology, histologic examination indicated carcinoma in 67 (88%), follicular adenoma in seven (9%) and nodular goiter in two (3%) patients. There were 246 true negative, 178 true positive, one false negative, and 24 false positive findings, yielding a sensitivity of 99%, specificity of 91%, accuracy of 94%, positive predictive value of 88% and negative predictive value of 99%, false negative rate of 0.2% and false positive rate of 5%. The study confirmed the ultrasound guided thyroid fine needle aspiration to be a reliable screening test for patients with thyroid nodules. Following a benign fine needle aspiration result of thyroid nodule the physician can be 99% sure that the lesion is indeed benign.
Keywords
Biopsy - needle; Thyroid nodule - diagnosis; Thyroid nodule - pathology
Hrčak ID:
14438
URI
Publication date:
1.3.2004.
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