Comparison of cytological adequacy in ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of thyroid nodules with different numbers of needle passes

作者：Chen, Q. -Y.; Zhang, T.; LI, W. -G.; Liang, M. -L.; LI, C. -Z.; Song, D. -D.; LI, Z. -F.; Pan, D. -Y.; Hu, S. -D.; Song, Y. -Q.; Chen, Z.^*

来源：European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences, 2023, 27(13): 6000-6005.

• Fine-needle aspiration of thyroid nodules
• Number of needle passes
• Cytological adequacy rate

- OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the cytological adequa-cy rates of different needle passes in ultra-sound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy of thyroid nodules and, thus, to help establish the criterion for selecting the number of needle passes according to the characteristics of thy-roid nodules.PATIENTS AND METHODS: This single -cen-ter and randomized prospective study involved 207 consecutive patients with 240 solid or pre-dominantly solid thyroid nodules. These nod-ules were randomly divided into a 1-pass group, a 2-pass group, and a 3-pass group. Then the nodules were sent for cytopathological diagno-sis, and cytological results were classified ac-cording to the Bethesda classification. Bethes-da I was defined as inadequate, and Bethesda II-VI were defined as adequate. Then the cyto-logical adequacy rates of different groups were compared.RESULTS: In total, 221 nodule specimens were considered as adequate and 19 nodule spec-imens inadequate. The overall adequacy rate was 92.1%. However, there were no significant differences among the 1, 2, and 3-pass groups in terms of adequacy rates (91.3%, 92.5%, and 92.5%, respectively).CONCLUSIONS: The number of needle pass-es does not significantly affect the cytologi-cal adequacy in ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of solid or predominantly solid thy-roid nodules. The cytological adequacy of one -needle pass is comparable to those of two and three-needle passes.

• 单位
  广州医学院; 南方医科大学