Split sample comparison of a liquid-based method and conventional smears in thyroid fine needle aspiration.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the efficacy of the SurePath (SP) vs. conventional smears (CS) in fine needle aspiration (FNA) of thyroid gland lesions.


METHODS
A total of 193 FNA cases with thyroid nodules were studied. Samples from ultrasound-guided FNA were split to prepare CS and SP slides. The diagnostic categories of unsatisfactory, benign, atypical and malignant were compared. Galectin-3 immunostaining was performed on SP slides.


RESULTS
Some differences were found between the cytomorphology of CS and SP. SP slides showed more increased cellularity and more clustered tissue fragments. On SP slides, nuclear detail and nucleoli were more easily detected and nuclear irregularity was very useful for the diagnosis of papillary carcinoma. SP showed a trend toward a lower proportion of atypical category. The overall sensitivity of FNA in diagnosing thyroid neoplasm was 90.9% for CS and 93.9% for SP. Most lesions (73%) diagnosed as papillary carcinoma after surgery showed positive staining of galectin-3.


CONCLUSIONS
The SP method showed easy evaluation of cytomorphologic features and consistent specimen quality and appeared to be more useful in diagnosing the suspicious cases. Moreover, it offered the possibility of adjunctive immunocytochemistry on the same sample.
Department of Hospital Pathology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Chan-Kwon
CK
Jung
Ahwon
A
Lee
Eun-Sun
ES
Jung
Yeong-Jin
YJ
Choi
So-Lyung
SL
Jung
Kyo-Young
KY
Lee
D000236:Adenoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle / Q000592:standards; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D006965:Hyperplasia; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D016606:Thyroid Nodule / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology
D037502:Galectin 3