The malign thyroid nodules identification, in the middle of a large number of innocent ones, by usual methods of exploration, is expensive, inespecific and of low accuracy. The fine needle aspiration biopsy, accepted in other places, is beginning to be used in our country.
Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of 915 fine needle aspiration biopsies (FNAB) of patients with thyroid nodules in a period of 10 years at a 400 bed general teaching hospital.
Material and method: 915 cytologic examinations and comparison of 126 of them with the histologic ones.
Results: Sensitivity, 91.2%; specificity, 47%; accuracy, 90.9%; false-positive, 3.6%; false negative, 5.5%. The proportion of neoplasms found in thyroidectomies was 20% when FNAB was not available yet and 48% after the introduction of this procedure. Patient acceptance was quite good, complications were infrequent and with no gravity.
Conclusions: FNAB of the thyroid is efficient, safe, well tolerated and easily applied even in a small hospital, but its limitations must be emphasized, mainly when we analyse the negative results.