title: The reliability of fine-needle aspiration biopsy in terms of malignancy in patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis.
abstract: The aim of this study was to analyze the presence of malignancy in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis and to investigate the reliability of preoperative fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). The retrospective study included 44 patients who were operated on for nodular goiter between December 2010 and October 2011. The patients underwent thyroidectomy following a cytologic analysis plus FNAB. Hashimoto's thyroiditis was confirmed on histopathology in all patients. FNAB results were defined as benign in 14 (31.8%), suspicion for malignancy in 17 (38.6%), malignant in 9 (20.5%), and inadequate in 4 (9.1%). Following the thyroidectomy, presence of papillary thyroid carcinoma and follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma were detected in 10 patients (22.7%) and 1 (2.3%) patient, respectively. The FNAB results were interpreted in terms of malignancy, which revealed the sensitivity as 80%; specificity, 40%; false positives, 69.2%; false negatives, 14.3%; positive predictive value, 31.8%; negative predictive value, 85.7%; and diagnostic accuracy, 50%. The coexistence of Hashimoto's thyroiditis with papillary thyroid carcinoma is quite common. The FNAB results for such cases are hard to evaluate, and they are likely to increase the number of false positives.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of General Surgery, Dicle University Medical Faculty, Diyarbakır, Turkey.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kapan
authors.forename: Akin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Onder
authors.forename: Sadullah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Girgin
authors.forename: Burak Veli
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Ulger
authors.forename: Ugur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Firat
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Uslukaya
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oguz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006044:Goiter, Nodular / Q000473:pathology; D050031:Hashimoto Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D057234:Preoperative Period; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D000077273:Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D013965:Thyroidectomy; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Fine needle aspiration biopsy; Hashimoto's thyroiditis; Papillary thyroid carcinoma