title: Thyroid microcarcinoma: fine-needle aspiration diagnosis and histologic follow-up.
abstract: The increased sensitivity of many imaging modalities (ultrasound, computed tomography scan, magnetic resonance imaging) has resulted in the identification of thyroid nodules, measuring 1 cm or less. Usually these small lesions are regarded as incidental and are not sampled by fine-needle aspiration (FNA). However, some of these lesions undergo FNA because of suspicious radiology findings (multifocality, calcification, etc) or in patients with a history of radiation to the head and neck region. We present FNA findings and histologic follow-up of 39 thyroid nodules that measured 1.0 cm or less. All FNAs were performed under ultrasound guidance. The lesions ranged in size from 0.2 to 1.0 cm. Twenty-two lesions were diagnosed as papillary carcinoma (PTC), 4 as medullary carcinoma (MC), and 13 as suspicious for PTC on FNA. Histologic follow-up showed PTC in 35 and MC in 4 cases; 11 PTC were multifocal (31%) and lymph node metastases were present in 8 (16%) cases. Ultrasound-guided FNA is effective in the sampling of thyroid cancers that are 1.0 cm or less. The present study shows that some of these lesions can be clinically significant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, New York University Medical Center, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Grace C H
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Virginia A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: LiVolsi
authors.forename: Zubair W
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Baloch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D018276:Carcinoma, Medullary / Q000556:secondary*; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000556:secondary*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D016606:Thyroid Nodule / Q000473:pathology*