Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytodiagnosis of the « Cold » Thyroid Nodule

The results of 1886 fine-needle cytoaspirations of solid, palpable thyroid nodules, « cold » on scintiscanning, performed between 1 January 1978 and 31 December 1986, were analyzed. In total 36 diagnoses of malignancy were made (1.9%). The results of cytologic and histologic examinations were compared in 114 cases to verify the diagnostic accuracy of this method; there was agreement in 98 cases and discordance in 16 consisting of 13 false negatives (11.4%) and 3 false positives (2.6 %). The sensitivity was 77.9 %, specificity 94.5 %, positive predictive value 93.8 %, negative predictive value 80 % and test efficiency 86 %. These values are in the range of those reported in the literature and confirm the validity of fine-needle aspiration cytology in the preoperative diagnosis of thyroid neoplasms.