Evaluation of thyoid fine needle aspiration for pathological concordance

Thyroid nodules are a common problem and the first thyroid malignancy ‎presentation in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate FNABs ‎performed in patients with thyroid nodule between years 1995‎‏ to 2006‎‏ for ‎cytohistologic concordance.‎ In this study we reviewed files of 1150 patients with thyroid ‎nodule and finally 218 patients undergone thyroid surgery following FNAB biopsy ‎were chosen for the study.‎ Four cytologic diagnostic categories were used and the rates of these ‎categories were as follows: benign, 57/8 percent; suspicious for malignancy, 20/2 ‎percent; malignant, 19/7 percent and nondiagnostic, 1/4 percent. We obtained a ‎sensitivity of 72/5 percent, a specificity of 83 percent and an accuracy of 76 percent ‎‎. The false negative rate was 19 percent and the false positive rate was 24 percent.‎‏ Discussion‏ AND The results of this study showed that diagnostic ‎value (sensitivity,specifity,accuracy) of FNAB in our region in comparison with other ‎countries is low. The most concerning result is the low rate of nondiagnostic (1‎‏/‏‎4 VS ‎‎17 percent) and high rate of false negative reports (19 percent) in comparison with ‎other studies (5‎‏/‏‎2 percent). It seems that FNA is an accurate and cost effective ‎procedure yet and it can be more accurate with better sampling and more attention to ‎false negative and inadequate results. Considering of an standard classification and ‎clinical data is suggested especially in suspicions results.‎