Purpose: To correlate cytological diagnosis with the anatomicopathological ones to assess the accuracy of cytological examination as a diagnostic test.
Cases and method: The results of 328 cytological diagnoses were compared with the corresponding anatomicopathological results from surgical specimens.
Results: In all thyroid diseases the accuracy of the method was above 95%. Among the more frequent diseases, the sensitivity of the test was 98%, 69%, 81%, 85% and 89%, respectively for nodular colloid goiter, follicular neoplasms, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, papillary carcinoma and Hürthle-cell neoplasia; in all of them the test specificity was at least 89%.
Conclusion: Based on these results and owing to its relative simplicity, this study also documents the FNAB usefulness as a diagnostic method for thyroid diseases.