Fine needle aspiration of follicular lesions of the thyroid

Abstract

Background: Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is a reliable method in the initial assessment of thyroid nodules. This study evaluated the accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in cases of follicular neoplasm (FN) on the basis of histologic diagnosis, and reviewed the cytologic findings of FN according to the FNAC.Method: Among the 100 cases diagnosed with thyroid Follicular Neoplasm by FNAC during the 3 year period from October 2020 to September 2022, 54 cases that had undergone thyroid surgery were available for review. Cytologic diagnosis was compared with the histologic diagnosis of each case.Results: Among the 54 cases with a cytologic diagnosis of thyroid FN, histologic diagnosis was as follows: 32 follicular adenomas (59.3%), 4 Hurthle cell adenomas (7.4%), 2 follicularcarcinomas (3.7%),10 nodular goitres (18.5%), 2 papillary carcinomas (3.7%), and 1 Hashimoto'sthyroiditis (3.7%), resulting in a diagnostic accuracy of FNAC for thyroid FN of 70.4%.Conclusion: This study shows that FNAC for thyroid FN is a useful primary screening method because when FN is diagnosed by FNAC, the rate of FN histological diagnosis is relatively high and however, adequate sampling and experience is a prerequisite for this procedure.