Malignancy risk for thyroid nodules larger than 4 cm and diagnostic reliability of ultrasound-guided FNAB results
Erdem Karadeniz1, Mesut Yur2, Ayetullah Temiz3, Müfide Nuran Akçay1
1Department of General Surgery, Ataturk University School of Medicine, Erzurum, Turkey
2Clinic of General Surgery, Trabzon Kanuni Training and Research Hospital, Trabzon , Turkey
3Clinic of General Surgery, Erzurum Regional Training and Research Hospital, Erzurum , Turkey
Abstract
Objective: Our aim in the present study was to investigate the relation between thyroid nodule diameter and malignancy, and the diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) for thyroid nodules larger than 4 cm.
Material and Methods: Preoperative patient demographics such as age and gender, thyroid nodule diameter, FNAB results and postoperative pathology results were recorded. The relation between age, gender, thyroid nodule size of the patients and malignancy was examined. Also, the sensitivity, specificity, false negativity, false positivity and accuracy rates of FNBA of the patients whose thyroid nodule size was lower than 4 cm and the ones whose thyroid nodule size was higher than 4 cm were analyzed.
Results: There was no significant difference between males and females in terms of malignancy rate (p= 0.15). There was no significant relation between malignancy and patient age (p= 0.92). No significant difference was found between the group with thyroid nodule diameter of > 4 cm and the group thyroid with nodule diameter of < 4 cm in terms of malignancy (p= 0.91). In the group with thyroid nodule diameter of > 4 cm, sensitivity, specificity, false negativity, false positivity, and accuracy rates of FNAB were 15%, 100%, 84%, 0%, and 70%, respectively. In the group with thyroid nodule diameter of < 4 cm, sensitivity, specificity, false negativity, false positivity, and accuracy rates of FNAB were 53%, 100%, 46%, 0% and 80%, respectively.
Conclusion: Our study put forward that thyroid nodule diameter is not the only predictor parameter whilst predicting malignancy. However, it was observed that FNAB sensitivity and false negativity were higher when the thyroid nodules with > 4 cm diameter were compared to the thyroid nodules with < 4 cm diameter.
Keywords: Thyroid nodule diameter, malignancy, fine needle aspiration biopsy, false negativity
Ethics committee approval was not obtained because the study was a retrospective file screening study.
As the study was a retrospective file screening study, informed consent was not obtained.
Externally peer-reviewed.
Concept – E.K., M.N.A.; Design – M.N.A.; Supervision – E.K.; Materials – M.Y.; Data Collection and/or Processing – A.T.; Analysis and/or Interpretation – E.K., M.N.A.; Literature Search – E.K.; Writing Manuscript – E.K., M.Y.; Critical Reviews – M.N.A.
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.