Test Performances of Three Diagnostic Procedures in Evaluating Thyroid Nodules Physical Examination, Ultrasonography and Fine Needle Aspiration CytoÍogy

TAKAHIRO OKAMOTO; TOMOYUKI YAMASHITA; ARIMI HARASAWA; TOSHIKO KANAMURO; MOTOHIKO AIBA; MAKIO KAWAKAMI; YUKIO ITO; MASAKATSU MURAKAMI; YOSHIHIDE FUJIMOTO; TAKAO OBARA

doi:10.1507/endocrj.41.243

Test Performances of Three Diagnostic Procedures in Evaluating Thyroid Nodules

Physical Examination, Ultrasonography and Fine Needle Aspiration CytoÍogy

TAKAHIRO OKAMOTO, TOMOYUKI YAMASHITA, ARIMI HARASAWA, TOSHIKO KANAMURO, MOTOHIKO AIBA, MAKIO KAWAKAMI, YUKIO ITO, MASAKATSU MURAKAMI, YOSHIHIDE FUJIMOTO, TAKAO OBARA

Author information

TAKAHIRO OKAMOTO
Departments of Endocrine Surgery, Tokyo Women's Medical College
TOMOYUKI YAMASHITA
Departments of Endocrine Surgery, Tokyo Women's Medical College
ARIMI HARASAWA
Departments of Radiology, Tokyo Women's Medical College
TOSHIKO KANAMURO
Departments of Surgical Pathology, Tokyo Women's Medical College
MOTOHIKO AIBA
Departments of Surgical Pathology, Tokyo Women's Medical College
MAKIO KAWAKAMI
Departments of Surgical Pathology, Tokyo Women's Medical College
YUKIO ITO
Departments of Endocrine Surgery, Tokyo Women's Medical College
MASAKATSU MURAKAMI
Institute of Statistical Mathematics
YOSHIHIDE FUJIMOTO
Departments of Endocrine Surgery, Tokyo Women's Medical College
TAKAO OBARA
Departments of Endocrine Surgery, Tokyo Women's Medical College

Keywords: Thyroid nodules, Sensitivity and specificity of Diagnostic tests, Physical examination, Ultrasonography, Fine needle aspiration cytology

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1994 Volume 41 Issue 3 Pages 243-247

DOI https://doi.org/10.1507/endocrj.41.243

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Abstract

A retrospective study was performed to determine the reliability of physical examination (PE), ultrasonography (US) and fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNA) in the evaluation of thyroid nodules. Preoperative diagnoses of 252 euthyroid patients comprised 126 with benign lesions, 114 with papillary carcinoma and 12 with follicular carcinoma made by PE, US and FNA were reviewed. The specificity of PE, US and FNA for malignancy was 98%, 90% and 98%, respectively. The sensitivity of PE, US and FNA for malignancy was 63%, 78% and 80%. The sensitivity for papillary carcinoma of the three procedures was 68%, 83%, 88%, whereas that for follicular carcinoma was 25%, 25%, 8%, respectively. When all the test results were negative, the likelihood ratio favoring papillary carcinoma was 0.008 whereas that favoring follicular carcinoma was 0.6. The histological category of carcinoma should be considered when evaluating diagnostic procedures for thyroid nodules. No negative test result is conclusive for ruling out the possibility of follicular carcinoma.

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